


The Hargreeves Case

by umbureraakademi



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Humor, Bad Humor, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Inappropriate Humor, Original Character(s), Sexual Humor, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-05-13 16:06:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 26,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19254562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/umbureraakademi/pseuds/umbureraakademi
Summary: Detective Diego Hargreeves was one of the most talented detectives in the precinct, but an incident that happened a year ago had him spiraling into bouts of drunken nights and caring less about his cases. Things appear to take a turn for the worse as the precinct's Commanding Officer hires a snarky new assistant after his last one resigned.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate universe where Diego pushed through with the Police Academy and became a detective working with Chuck Beeman and Eudora Patch. The apocalypse is non-existent but they still have their abilities. Police cases are heavily based on another one of my favorite shows Brooklyn Nine Nine because seriously who has the time to do actual research on police work in America when you're not even American.
> 
> Pairing: Diego x Female OC
> 
> Will contain smut in future chapters thus the Mature rating.
> 
> I don't own the canon just my characters and the plot.

He’s been staring at his case file since he got into the precinct. Well, that’s what most people may have thought he was doing, but with sunglasses on and a slightly nodding head it wouldn’t take a genius to know what he was  _actually_ doing.

“Diego.”

A slight snore escaped from this nodding zombie. Obviously it was going to take something more than a simple name call to wake this guy up, Chuck realized.

With a sigh Chuck carefully slipped Diego’s case file from his hands, the latter barely noticed it. He would’ve just continued on with his slumber if it weren’t for Chuck whacking his head with the file, knocking his sunglasses off.

“Beeman! What the fuck, man.” a groggy Diego cussed as he picked up his sunglasses.

“Seriously, Diego? You couldn’t pick a better time to take a nap. The Captain wants to see you. Maybe drown in some mouthwash before you go to his office though I can smell what you were drinking last night.”

“Shut up, Chuck. Not like you haven’t had a hangover before. Gimme that.” Diego retorted, snatching back his case file and putting it on his desk.

“Yeah but at least I–” Chuck stopped himself mid sentence as he was about to say that he didn’t come to work hungover almost every single day. But as he watched his friend stare at a picture at his desk he felt a sudden wave of sympathy.

Everyone knows why Detective Hargreeves, who used to be one of the most talented detectives in the precinct has been going off drunk every night and turning up the next morning hungover and just flying through the day. Chuck, of all people, would know exactly what he was going through.

It’s been a year since the incident and they say time heals, but how long is it going to take Diego to heal until he gets kicked out of the precinct? It’s actually a miracle he hasn’t been fired yet.

“Look, umm… I’ll get you some water and some aspirin and then you can go see the Captain.” Chuck offered.

“Thanks, man.” was the soft reply.

\- - - - - 

“Captain, you wanted to see me?” Diego greeted as he sauntered into Captain Lee’s office and closed the door behind him.

“Detective Hargreeves.” Captain Lee started as he turned away from a file he was looking through to bring his attention Diego. “I wanted an update on that murder case at the Morgenthau apartment.”

Diego shrugged his shoulders. “Perp broke in, stole a few stuff, guy was shot, he’s dead. What else is there to update?”

The Captain gave him a long stare before saying, “Any leads on the shooter?”

“I dunno could be anyone who was hungry – I mean a watch and a laptop I get, but ham? What the fuck?”

“Detective Hargreeves, a man was shot. Why aren’t you taking this seriously?”

“I  _am_ taking this seriously.”

“I gave this case to you last week. You have zero leads and why are you coming into my office smelling like alcohol if you’re taking this ‘seriously’?”

“Look, Captain.” Diego started, his head starting to heat up as his tone took a sharp turn. “I’m  _working_ on it, okay? Murders don’t get solved overnight, I’m not exactly an all-seeing all father or whatnot. I’ll look into the stupid ham that was stolen because there’s obviously something strange with that.” he continued, rolling his eyes.

Captain Lee sighed and looked down at his desk. “Hargreeves, I know it’s been a hard year for you, but you can’t keep dragging on cases like this.” he said softly, then he looked up at Diego who looked away. “You know my offer still stands for you to go on administrative leave indefinitely.”

“And I’ll tell you the same thing I told you when you gave me that offer: Fuck. No. Telling me to sit behind a desk doing next to nothing could be the worst thing you can do to me after…” he stopped himself, not being able to continue.

There was a short pause before the Captain started, “I get it, but as Commanding Officer of this precinct I can’t have my cases slack behind.” Captain Lee said sternly. “If you want to keep doing cases, fine. But you won’t be doing any more murders. It was a mistake to give you this case in the first place.”

Stunned by what he was hearing Diego’s mouth dropped as he stared at the man behind his desk. “W-what?” he stammered.

“I’m re-assigning the Morgenthau case to Detective Beeman. Until you get it together you’ll only be doing petty theft cases and public disturbances.” Diego was at a loss for words, not believing anything Captain Lee was saying. As the Captain waved his hand he added, “You’re dismissed.”

Diego took a sharp breath and slowly approached the Captain’s table, almost menacingly. “You can’t do this to me.” he muttered.

“I’m your Commanding Officer, I get to decide where cases go and I’m supposed to give them to someone who can solve them efficiently.” Captain Lee responded firmly, looking Diego dead in the eyes. “Turnover your case files to Beeman. That is an order. You. Are. Dismissed.” he said with finality.

Diego could have just thrown a knife at him and purposely make it only slightly cut him on the side of his ear to scare him off and reconsider reassigning his case. But he worked under Captain Lee’s leadership long enough to know it still wouldn’t make than man budge, and he was just tired and wanted to hit the bar again for another drink.

Wordlessly Diego turned away from Captain Lee and as he left his office slammed his door, leaving the older man as he took a deep sigh.

“Hargreeves, pull it together.” he said to himself.

\- - - - - 

The door slamming shocked everyone at the precinct, but no one else was more shocked than a sleeping figure sitting at a desk right outside the Captain’s office. Being jolted awake from slumber the figure gave a loud yelp before falling off the chair, attracting Diego’s attention.

As far as he knew that desk was empty for a few days ever since Captain Lee’s assistant resigned to get married, determined to being a housewife. He didn’t even notice someone was sitting on it again before he went into the Captain’s office. Curious, he approached the desk and bent over to find out who he had just shocked enough for them to fall off their chair.

A sudden impact on his chin made him back off, mixed with his and a female’s voice both giving out a loud “FUCK!”

“What’s the deal, man?! Can’t a girl take her power nap without some psycho slamming doors and shit.” retorted the woman behind the assistant’s desk, rubbing her head where she had just hit Diego’s chin.

“You’re not even supposed to be taking a nap while at work.” Diego replied, rubbing his sore chin before bringing his eyes down to look at the chick who just headbutted his chin. Then he had to lower his gaze a little bit more - she was petite, with both of them now standing at full height she barely even reached his shoulders. She was also dressed like one of those teenagers they’d catch spray painting walls as opposed to a Commanding Officer’s assistant.

“Well,  _Officer_.” the girl said mockingly. “If you’re going to berate me on taking a nap at my desk then you shouldn’t be doing the same thing a few minutes ago before T’Challa hit you in the head.”

“Okay, first off, I’m a  _detective_.” Diego corrected. “Second, T’Challa? Really?”

“What? He’s African-American, I don’t know his name, and I like Marvel.” she started. “And whatever, officer, detective, police guy, you guys are all the same shitty cops to me.” rolling her eyes she sat back at her chair and proceeded to scroll through Instagram on her cellphone.

 _Unbelieveabe_. Diego thought, further wondering how she even got through with the job interview knowing how stiff Captain Lee is. “I assume you’re the Captain’s new assistant.” he said.

“Wow! Great solving, Detective.” she said sarcastically, not looking up from her cellphone and now swinging side to side on her chair. “A woman sitting at a desk right outside the Captain’s office designated for his assistant - I mean who could’ve thought that woman would be his… uhh… new assistant?” she added, only making Diego more pissed off than he was when he left the Captain’s office.

“I don’t need this.” he said, giving up as he started to walk away.

“Goodbye,  _Detective_. Hope you go solve some shit.” she said nonchalantly before giggling at a dachshund doing cute faces on her Instagram feed. “Dachs are the best.” she said to herself.

After being somewhat “demoted” from serious cases from the Captain, Diego thought he couldn’t be given anymore bullshit than this. Turns out the bullshit was just going to keep coming after meeting the Captain’s new assistant.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions rise over the coffee maker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't have much to say yet since this is still the 2nd chappie hihihi. So why am I even still writing this? As we say it in the Philippines, "wala lang, feel nako."

Muttering to himself, Diego sat down at his desk as he started arranging all the information he had on what used to be his murder case like an angry teenager told to go to his room. Chuck, sitting across from him, watched his friend in slight amusement at the less than pleased detective.

“So…” he started, with Diego not looking up from what he was doing. “You met the Captain’s new assistant.”

“Don’t get me started with that little shit.” Diego snarled. “You know she called you T’Challa? I mean he isn’t even African-American, he’s African. The actor is African-American.” at this Chuck raised an eyebrow.

“For someone who says superhero movies are bullshit you sure know your Marvel.” he said, Diego ignored him. “I’d watch the names you call her though, especially in front of the Captain, considering she’s his niece.”

At this news Diego fumbled with the folder he was arranging, all the files and unfinished paperwork of a stagnant case falling to the floor. Before picking it up he gave Chuck a wild look of disbelief saying, “S-she’s  _what_?!” 

“Uhh… the Captain’s niece? Apparently, his brother begged him to let her work here knowing he was looking for an assistant. Probably knows she’s got an attitude since he told everyone to be patient with her.” Chuck affirmed.

“Everyone? When was this announced?” Diego questioned.

“This morning at the briefing room. You might have dozed off like you usually do.” Chuck said nonchalantly.

“Ugh.” Diego sighed as he bent down to pick up his files when a pair of feet passed by and nearly stepped on one of the files he was picking up. “Hey!” he exclaimed, looking up to see that same assistant they were talking about still on her phone.

She paused but didn’t look up or turn to look at the guy who just “hey”-ed her. “Oohh sorry, are those important? Wait, I don’t care.” she said before starting to move again to wherever she was going. “If those files are so important don’t go around dropping them, Detective Dickhead.” she shouted on her way for everyone in the precinct to hear.

Diego was fuming and when he caught Chuck trying to stifle a chuckle he gave the man a death glare. Meeting those venomous eyes for a second, Chuck cleared his throat and said, “She’s quite the handful.”

“Handful doesn’t even begin to cover it.” Diego muttered as he put his files back all together. Standing up and passing by Chuck’s table he slammed the files on his desk, startling him a bit. “Your handling Morgenthau now. Captain’s orders.” he said before walking away.

“And where are you going?” Chuck called after.

“Getting coffee. Headache hasn’t gone away.” Diego responded before walking out from Chuck’s view.

\- - - - - 

Stepping into the pantry Diego was greeted with the sight of the Captain’s assistant holding the carafe and looking back at it back and forth with the coffee maker like it was some advanced technology. Not saying anything, Diego folded his arms and leaned on the doorway, curious to see what she was up to.

Not noticing him by the door, the assistant motioned to the sink about to fill up the carafe with water, thinking that was how you were supposed to brew the coffee.

“You know for someone with a smart mouth you sure are a pro at brewing coffee.” Diego said sarcastically just as she had started filling up the carafe with water. Jumping at the sudden sound of someone else’s voice she nearly dropped it in the sink but the jolt splashed some water on her shirt.

“Jesus Christ! Ugh, fuck.” she exclaimed, turning off the faucet and setting the carafe down beside the sink before turning to see who had just rudely interrupted her perfect coffee making. Seeing it was the same guy who jolted her awake with door drama she rolled her eyes. “Great, it’s Detective Dickhead.”

Fighting the urge to to call her a string of nasty names, Diego instead responded with, “Are you done? I’d like to make my cup of coffee.”

“Well too bad, Detective. Because the Captain wants coffee too and I can’t figure out this piece of shit.” the assistant said with a sarcastic smile as she picked up the carafe, still semi-filled with water, and walked back to the coffee machine. “He just can’t settle for instant coffee or Starbucks.” she muttered to herself.

About to put the carafe back in the coffee machine, Diego just had to stop her before she does any damage and the whole precinct is deprived of coffee because some stupid assistant didn’t know how to use it. “Okay, wait–” he started before the assistant put her finger up.

“Ah, ah, ah.” she said. “I don’t need your help, Detective Dickhead. There’s probably a YouTube video on how to use this thing…” she continued pulling up her phone from her pocket.

“Call me Detective Dickhead one more time you little–” Diego started to seethe before being interrupted again, this time by the Captain himself.

“Monica.” Captain Lee started, standing in the doorway now next to Diego. Noticing the other man he gave a curt nod before greeting him with, “Detective.”

Clearing his throat and straightening up Diego greeted back, “Captain.”

The assistant flashed the Captain a fake sweet smile. “Uncle Gwimmy.” she said with a mocking childish tone.

Diego could see the Captain’s expression tighten as he was also fighting the urge to tell off his niece. “You will address me as Captain Lee as long as we are both in this precinct.” he said patiently, but with a slight edge.

“Whatever.” the assistant muttered in response.

“Just checking to see if you didn’t have any problems preparing that coffee I asked for 20 minutes ago.” said the Captain.

“Sorry,  _Captain_. I sorta just got here after browsing through 10 minutes worth of looking through cute dachshund pictures on Instagram and spent another 10 minutes trying to figure out how to use this.” as she explained she held up the carafe, still so wrongly filled with water. “Because as you know I’m more of a no nonsense instant coffee or get someone else to do my coffee like someone at Starbucks kind of girl.” she finished. 

“Monica, I’m going out on a limb letting you work here at your father’s request. But if you’re going to keep up with your spoiled, entitled attitude I won’t hesitate to assign you into mopping floors instead of sitting behind a desk.” Captain Lee said as he was slowly approaching his niece, who seemed to have removed the smug look on her face and actually looked like she was shrinking.

“So while you are here working as my assistant, you will come to work dressed in proper office attire - no sneakers, no shirts of some random rock band, you can wear jeans as long as you have a collared top - address me appropriately, address my officers and my detectives appropriately, and do what I ask you to do - including, but not limited to, getting my coffee.” there was a short pause before he continued.

“I won’t have any rumors going around the precinct about how Captain Lee let some unqualified, incompetent little brat fill in as his new assistant just because she was his niece. That is an order. Are we clear, Monica?” he finished.

Swallowing on what she felt like a ball stuck in her throat, Monica replied with a meek, “Yes, Captain.”

“Good. Detective.” turning his attention back to Diego who was silently and awkwardly watching the entire thing, Captain Lee made a small request. “Perhaps you can teach my new assistant how to use the coffee maker.”

“Umm…” Diego started, he’s seen the Captain’s scary side so many times yet it’s still able to run a chill down his spine seeing it in action. “Y-yeah, yeah, sure. I’ll handle it, Captain.” he said, probably nodding his head a little too much.

“Excellent. I’ll leave the two of you to it. Remember, I like my coffee a little creamy, but not too creamy.” Captain Lee said.

“Got it, Captain.” Diego responded with an awkward smile as the Captain nodded to the both of them before leaving. There was an uncomfortable silence as Monica was avoiding Diego’s gaze after being roasted by her uncle right in front of him. “So uhh… Monica…?” he started and she looked up at him, the look in her eyes as sharp as the knives he was carrying.

“Okay, let’s get this straight. My uncle’s an ass but yeah since my dad was literally on his knees asking to put me here in the middle of all these cops I guess I owe him for at least not making me a janitor.” she said, her tone tight like she was trying to fight back angry tears. “But that doesn’t mean I have to be nice to everyone here. I’ll do my job but I won’t kiss your asses.”

 _No one’s asking you to kiss their ass, you’re just being a bitch_. Diego thought to himself, trying not to roll his eyes out of pity. Instead he put his hands up like he was about to be arrested. “All right, well, Captain ordered me to help you with the coffee maker, so that’s what I’m going to do. First off…” approaching Monica, he took the carafe from her hands and headed to the sink. “This is  _not_ where you put the water.” he said as he poured the water out and, using a paper towel, wiped it down. 

 **  
** Diego ended up being the one preparing the coffee while he let Monica observe in silence, and miraculously she was actually paying attention and not looking through her phone. After filling up the right places with water and coffee beans, the machine started dripping sweet-smelling coffee thanks to him. **  
**

“That’s going to take like about 5 or so minutes to drip enough coffee for the Captain. There’s some fresh milk in the fridge with the Captain’s name on it. Mix it while you pour some in and stop when it starts becoming light brown.” he said, now leaning on the counter with the coffee machine between him and Monica.

“Thanks. Think I know what to do next time.” Monica said with a shrug. There was silence again as the two of them just stood there watching the coffee machine. “Aren’t you supposed to go back to your desk solving cases or something?” she said, unable to stand that Diego was still standing there.

“Well, if you can remember before Captain Lee walked in here to put you in your place, I wanted a cup of coffee myself.” he responded with an edge.

“Of course you do, want me to prepare yours for you as well like this precinct’s little slave, Detective?” Monica said with a scoff. “Cops…” she muttered.

“Think I can make my own coffee, thank you Monica.” Diego said, narrowing his eyes to try and tone done the iciness in his tone.

“God I hate that name but I hate you too so it’ll just be gross to tell you my nickname.” Monica grumbled, mostly to herself though since they were in close proximity Diego could still hear everything she was saying. “So,  _Detective_ since I can’t exactly call you Detective Dickhead anymore because of ‘Captain’s orders’.” as she said that she mockingly gestured quotation marks with her hands while rolling her eyes. “Guess I should get your proper name.”

His nerve ticked a bit at hearing Detective Dickhead again but he decided to digress, introducing himself instead, “Hargreeves. Detective Diego Hargreeves.” at this he could see Monica’s eyes suddenly grow wide and, if he was seeing right, she may have even paled a bit.

“H-Hargreeves?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monica doesn't know what to make of this new information - that information being she had just been dissing THE Diego Hargreeves from The Umbrella Academy. Or is that all there is?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so in regards to the location for TUA I know they shot it at Toronto but does that also mean that the canon location is also Toronto? I was kinda confused as I haven't had the chance to read the comics but after doing some research I found they just call it The City? Anyway, for this fic I chose to set it in New York since American places are a bit easier for me to look into (despite never having gone there - it's just referenced so much in film and stuff) and because I based the police cases off Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is set in New York. Hope this all makes sense!

Confused whether Monica looked genuinely shocked hearing Diego’s last name or if he was just imagining things, he gave her a curious look and said, “Yeah, Hargreeves. Is there something wrong?”

“Uhh…” Monica started before clearing her throat and trying to gain back her composure. “It’s just that… wow! Hargreeves… so you were one of those Umbrella kids, right?” she said as she gave a nervous laugh. “I was… a fan…” at this her tone sounded pained but she had hoped to convince Diego that was all there is to her shocked reaction.

Raising a disbelieving eyebrow, Diego responded with, “Really?”

“Yeah! Definitely, I watched you guys on the news all the time.” Monica continued rapidly. “Explains why you have all those knives on you. Guns were never your thing, huh?” she said in an attempt to change the topic.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! I’m just suuper starstruck right now finding out you’re Diego Hargreeves - Hargreeves!” Monica knew her nerves were getting the better of her and she needed a way out of this situation fast, maybe if she didn’t repeat that last name so much she’d be less suspicious. “So Diego… Mexican name!  _El Chupacabra_ … you’re Mexican!” she mouthed off randomly, cursing herself for being shit under pressure.

Diego scoffed before saying, “I was raised here in New York for as long as I can remember and I don’t even know who the hell my birth mother is… I  _might_ be by birth but I wasn’t exactly raised by Mexican parents to know the language and culture so it won’t feel right calling myself one. Stop trying to change the subject by being stupid and weird.” 

“I’m changing the subject?! You’re changing the subject!” was Monica’s defensive response. “Plus, your name’s Diego and you’re brown-skinned… tanned… whatever is politically correct, so that makes you Mexican. Your birth mother is probably Mexican. Your whole birth family could be Mexican.” Monica said with finality. “I’m saying ‘Mexican’ too much it’s starting to sound racist…” she said under her breath before she noticed the coffee maker thankfully finished brewing a fresh pot of coffee.

“Oh, look! Coffee’s ready, gotta get some to the Captain quick before he chews me off again!” she said rushedly as she quickly filled up the Captain’s mug and left the pantry before Diego could call after her with a reminder.

“You forgot the milk!” he yelled but she was already gone, shrugging he proceeded to pour his own coffee when he noticed Monica racing back into the pantry. Like a gazelle running away from a cheetah she swiftly opened the refrigerator, took out the Captain’s milk and raced back out.

“Thanks for the reminder,  _mi amigo_! Don’t get confused we’re not actually friends that’s just one of the very few Mexican terms I know!” she said rapidly as she rushed out.

Staring the the doorway in disbelief as she left, Diego shook his head. “Nope. Still not Mexican.” 

**After Work - Monica’s Apartment**

Dragging her feet along the hallway to her apartment, Monica lamented on how ridiculously mundane it was to be the Commanding Officer’s assistant. She got the Captain coffee, took calls with people she could care less about but had to even for just a bit, sorted boring police files, did errands for the Captain… needless to say she hated her job. 

The part she hated the most was that she was surrounded with the type of people she hated the most - cops. The fact that she discovered she was working in the same precinct as Diego Hargreeves only made it worse.

“Ugh! Fuck this shit!” she yelled to herself as she reached her apartment door. Heaving a heavy sigh she searched her bag for her keys but ended up not needing them as the door opened. **  
**

Standing before her may just be an angel, an angel with golden hair - still wet from taking a shower, captivating green eyes, a beautifully crafted face you’d think he came straight out of a fancy painting, and rock solid abs. The fact he only had a towel around his waist only made him even more tempting to jump at.

“Hard day at work?” he said with his smooth British accent and a sweet smile.

“Jesus Christ.” Monica muttered as she pushed her way inside, the angelic manmeat stepping aside to let her in. “Jessica! Your boyfriend’s parading around with just a towel on again! We talked about this!” she yelled to her best friend and roommate who was in the kitchen preparing a meal.

“Enjoy the view, darling!” she yelled back amusedly.

The hunky piece of man chuckled as he closed the door and made his way to the woman in the kitchen. Placing his hands on her waist and giving her a kiss on the cheek he said, “I’ll go get dressed, love. Don’t want to upset Maica even more than she already is.”

“Oh Ben, honey, Maica’s perfectly fine with it.” Jessica responded, batting her eyelashes at her man.

“No I’m not and you better be thankful I’m such a loyal best friend.” Monica said, overhearing their conversation as she plopped herself down on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table.

Ben gave another chuckle as he planted another kiss on his girlfriend. “Be back in a bit.” he said before he walked off to the room he shared with Jessica. Passing by Monica on the couch he ruffled her hair and said, “Keep your feet off the coffee table, would you, darling?” he took his hand off quick enough to avoid being swatted by an annoyed Monica and made a run for the room.

“Seriously, you guys treat me like I’m your kid.” Monica complained, taking her feet off the table anyway as she stood up. “I’m gonna go change into something more comfy, when’s dinner ready?” she asked.

“And who’s acting like one, asking when dinner is ready and whatnot?” Jessica responded, giving her best friend a look. “5 minutes, go get changed first.” she said.

“Thanks, mom.” Monica responded with a laugh as she disappeared into her room.

**Dinner**

“The precinct is so full of shit!” Monica exclaimed over their dinner of Jessica’s specialty, spaghetti and meatballs.

“Whoa, language.” Jessica responded.

“But it’s true! Jessie, you should see it yourself. All the cops, shitty desk and computer, my uncle, stupid phone calls, stupid paperwork… cops!”

“You said ‘cops’ twice.”

“Because you know how much I hate them! I mean Uncle Gwilym being the Commanding Officer only makes it worse since he already told me off on the first day - now I actually have to ‘dress up’ for work.” Monica complained as she aggressively twirled some spaghetti on her fork.

“Hmm. Sounds tough.” Ben said, though not really interested as he slurped up some spaghetti.

“Ben.” Jessica said with a warning tone.

Swallowing down the spaghetti and patting some sauce hanging from his lip he held Jessie’s hand apologetically and said, “Sorry, love. You know your spaghetti’s my fave.” he said and winked.

“And there goes my panties.” was Jessica’s response.

“Umm… hello? Can you two stop being gross this one second and let me complain?” Monica interrupted.

“Sorry, Maica. Continue.” Jessica said after clearing her throat. Ben went back to eating his spaghetti.

“Anyway – so yeah my uncle was being an ass and it didn’t help that Detective Dickhead saw everything.” Monica said before finally taking a bite off her dish, not noticing Jessica’s raised eyebrow.

“Detective who?” she asked.

“Detective Dickhead. I’m not supposed to call him that anymore but ugh, don’t get me started with him. He’s some douche with anger management issues, going around slamming doors and waking people up from their power naps. Sure he helped me with the coffee maker but he’s still some entitled dick who thinks he’s better than anyone just because he’s a fucking detective. Big whoop I solve cases and shit. Doesn’t mean you know everything.” Monica rambled while chowing down, though the not-so-pleasant yet excessive description of Detective Dickhead was enough for Jessica and Ben to exchange looks.

“Sounds like you hate the guy.” Ben said subtly.

“Is he hot? Single? Are you into him?” Jessica said more straightforwardly making Ben shake his head.

“And there goes being subtle…”

“What, why would I care?! Ew Jessie I literally said he was a dick.” Monica said disgustedly.

“Oh c’mon, Maica. Men in uniform are super appealing – no offense to you, babe, you’re a total hottie.” Jessica said.

“None taken.” Ben responded.

“And… you could use a little dating after that last relationship you have. You know how hating each other at first gets you all worked up with all this inhibited  _sexual tension_.” Jessica said dynamically, making faces as she went. 

“Ew, okay you are getting way ahead of yourself, Jessie. I’d say I lost my appetite but that’s impossible with the way you cook.” Monica said with a grimace. **  
**

“Thank you, darling.” was Jessica’s proud response.

“But… he’s not the kind of guy I’d want to date… or be involved with for that matter.” Monica said, suddenly solemn as she poked at one of her meatballs.

“Why’s that?” Jessica said curiously.

Monica swallowed as she looked her best friend dead in the eye and said, “He’s a Hargreeves.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego goes off on another drinking escapade at a bar after a bad day at work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of my extra characters' names are mainly taken from other famous individuals since I'm too lazy to think up unique names teehee.

The shot glass hit the table with such an impact you’d think it would have broken into tiny pieces.

“Another one… Freddy…” Diego slurred, flicking his shot glass closer to the bartender who was just about to pour him another drink before the man next to Diego covered the shot glass with his hand.

“Yeah, I think he’s had enough, Fred. Thank you. Can we get the tab please?” Chuck requested. The bartender gave him a silent nod before leaving to calculate how much the two detectives spent that night.

“Chuck what the fuck… hey that rhymed… did you follow me…?” Diego struggled to say as he looked at the other man.

“Diego, I’ve been literally next to you the whole time and you’ve been ignoring me the whole time too when I insisted on coming with you. This is the first time you’ve talked to me in hours since we came down here. Drinking in silence isn’t really that fun, I tell you.” Chuck said and sighed. “You looked a lot grumpier than usual after giving me the Morgenthau case and you never told me what happened when you spoke with the Captain. I was worried.”

Diego scoffed as he twisted his body to the side so he was fully facing Chuck, propping his elbow on the bar to give his buzzed body some support. “Well  _you_ try to be chipper after Captain Lee decides you’re not worth the cases that actually matter and assigns you to taking stupid police reports from people dumb enough to let themselves get pickpocketed.” he said.

“It’s still part of our job, Diego. And don’t be too hard on those guys, pickpockets are getting real crafty these days. Maybe if you try to sober up Captain Lee will reconsider giving you the harder cases.” Chuck responded.

“Oh, yeah, won’t that just be  _swell_.” Diego said sarcastically. “The precinct is just getting shittier and shittier and just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse here comes this little twat of an assistant who thinks she’s better than everyone else just because she’s the Captain’s niece. News flash, girl: you’re just a fucking assistant! You take calls and get the Captain coffee. She doesn’t even know how to use the coffee maker so I had to teach her since I saw Captain Lee chew her off. Certainly wiped that smug ass look off her cute face. I almost felt sorry for her.” he rambled on drunkenly, and Chuck picked up on something that may have been of interest.

“Did you just call her cute?” he said curiously.

“What?! Pfft, no. You’re hearing things, man. That girl is not cute. She’s a snotty bitch who needs to know her place. I only  _almost_ felt sorry for her because Captain Lee is scary as hell, he makes the  _chupacabra_ look like a cute poodle.” Diego retorted.

“Since when did you start making references to Mexican folklore?” Chuck questioned again. Diego waved his hand at him and he started reaching behind the bar. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to get another drink since you’re putting words in my mouth…” Diego slurred, clumsily feeling his way behind the bar.

“Okay, Diego, enough.” Chuck said, talking hold of the other man’s arm before saying seriously, “Patch would never have wanted you to turn out like this.”

At what seemed like a snap, drunk Diego turned into rage-filled Diego as his arm went from behind the bar to the collar of Chuck’s button-down shirt. Holding it so tightly it almost choked him, Diego pulled the other man’s face so close their noses almost touched. Staring through Chuck’s glasses with eyes ablaze he said in a low, threatening voice, “Don’t you fucking say that name.”

The tension made the other bar patrons stare uncomfortably at the two detectives but Chuck kept himself collected and calm, like he’s been in situations like this many times before. “Let go of me, Diego.” he said steadily. “This isn’t the place to pick a fight, especially with me.” as he said this he firmly placed his hand on Diego’s, the one which was clutching his shirt’s collar, and with a gentle tug the disturbed detective let go of his friend.

Trying to calm down his heavy breathing after that outburst, Diego turned away from Chuck just as Freddy the bartender came back with the tab. Chuck took it, looked it over, pulled some money out from his wallet and gave it back to Freddy. “Keep the change, Freddy.” he said quietly, the bartender gave another silent nod before leaving to take care of the other patrons.

Chuck turned to Diego, who was still quiet and avoiding eye contact with him. “  _‘Thanks for paying, Chuck.’_  Oh, no probs, Diego. We’re buddies. _‘Sorry for grabbing you like that. I didn’t mean it.’_  I know, man. I know… ” he said, reenacting a conversation he envisioned to have with Diego after that little scene as an attempt to lighten the mood but also to let his friend know that he totally understood why he had his little outbursts.

Diego gave a small chuckle, and although he still wasn’t looking at Chuck, that was all his friend needed to affirm he had calmed down just a little bit. Placing his hand on Diego’s shoulder he said, “C’mon, buddy. Let’s get you home.”

**The Precinct the Next Morning**

A once again hungover Diego rubbed the side of his head while trying to take a police report from a young woman, around her early twenties, who reported her purse being snatched when she got distracted by stopping to take a picture of a corgi. Diego would normally have no problems getting the victims to share every inch of detail they could possibly give, if they weren’t so infatuated with him.

“Hey uhh… Detective…” the woman paused to try and remember his name.

“Hargreeves.” Diego supplied, though he had just introduced himself before letting the women sit by the side of his desk for him to take a report.

“Right, Detective Hargreeves. Are you seeing anyone?” the woman asked, flashing smile she thought would charm this cranky and hungover detective whose headache only worsened.

“Ma’am, can we go back to the theft, please? I’ll ask again, we got what he was wearing but were you able get a look at the guy who stole your purse?” Diego asked, dismissing the outright advances and trying to be patient.

“Oh… um… no.” the woman said blatantly, a little taken aback by being brushed off. “I mean, it just happened so fast, you know? One minute you see this cute little corgi you just want to take a quick snap of and the next thing you know it some asshole snatches my purse. At least I still have my  _phone_ , though.” as she said this she waved around her smartphone trying to drop a hint Diego would take.

He understood what the woman was aiming at and on the verge of losing his patience Diego was just about to snap when he heard someone place something at his desk to the other side. Turning around he saw Monica placing a mug of coffee on his desk, but she looked… different.

Ditching the punk skater girl look she had yesterday probably as an act of defiance to her uncle she now had on a tight, royal blue long-sleeved blouse tucked into a black pencil skirt. Her hair was neatly tucked into a low ponytail and she was even wearing black stockings.

“Don’t mistake this as an act of kindness, Detective Beeman asked if I could get you some coffee before you start losing your patience and ripping off the heads of people you’re supposed to be helping. Detective Beeman’s a nice guy for a cop so I thought I’d help him out. He’d do it himself but he’s with the Captain talking about a case.” Monica said pointedly, clearly indicating that while her look changed that’s just about the only thing that did.

“Anyway when you’re done helping out this poor civilian retrieve a purse she really should have been paying attention to more, Captain wants me to look for a file at the records room and he says you could help since you’re apparently the least busiest person in the precinct at the moment.” she continued on, but she wasn’t sure if her favorite detective was paying attention to her at all as he was just staring.

“Hey!” she exclaimed, snapping her fingers at Diego. “Wake up, Detective. If you heard anything I said at all let me summarize: drink your fucking coffee, take the damn police report, and help me out at your shitty records room. I’m heading there ahead.” she said, glaring at Diego before walking off towards the direction of the records room.

The woman scoffed as she said, “Well she was  _rude_.”

“Uhh… yeah sorry about that she could be a… handful.” seeming to have come back to his senses Diego cleared his throat and took a sip of the coffee Monica had just prepared, he made a face as it wasn’t how he would usually prepare his cup of joe. She actually just mimicked what she would have done with the Captain’s coffee, but Diego liked his black.  _Ugh. This is terrible._  He thought to himself as he set it down.

“So, Detective–”

“Ma’am, sorry to interrupt. But if we don’t have the guy’s face it’ll be hard to catch him as it could be anyone. However, I did take note of where you got your purse snatched. Perps would sometimes do the same thing at the same place. We’ll be informing the officers on patrol at that area to watch out for anything suspicious and we’ll do our best to retrieve what you lost.” taking down a few more notes Diego closed his notebook and set it down on his desk.

Taking a pad of post-its he gave them to the woman and stood up. “Please write down your number here and we’ll contact you for any progress. Afterwards, Detective Deacon can assist you out of the precinct.” as he said this he nodded to a colleague who caught his eye from across the office. The other detective have him an okay sign and Diego left before the woman could protest and ask him to stay with her a little longer.

Giving a lovestruck sigh as she stared at the man who was walking away from her she said dreamily, “He asked for my number.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monica gets on Diego's nerves a little too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the lack of anything good to say just enjoy it hehe.

Slipping away from the poorly misguided purse snatcher victim, Diego made his way into the records room where he found Monica leaning on a table scrolling through her phone. It seemed she had already gathered some boxes on the table but judging from how they weren’t opened yet, hadn’t started going through them.

“Oh good, you’ve finally escaped from your clingy girlfriend.” she said, noticing his entrance to the records room but not looking up from her phone.

“I knew it was too good to assume you’d actually get a headstart at these.” Diego responded exasperatedly, too tired to even roll his eyes as he was still very much hungover from last night.

“Me? Do the dirty work? Please.” Monica responded. “I gathered up all these boxes here so  _you_ could look through them. I’m just an assistant and I’m new, how am I supposed to know where to start looking?”

“There’s this thing called  _initiative_. I mean we don’t randomly just stuff shit in here these are all organized in a particular system.”

“Well, Detective, why do you think the Captain asked me to drag your sorry ass here? You know for someone who solves cases for a living you sure aren’t very bright.”

Once again just a few seconds with this sharp woman started making Diego’s blood boil, but it only made his headache bang even harder at his brain. “Look, let’s not make things difficult, okay? You don’t like me, I don’t like you either. Let’s just look for whatever goddamn file the Captain wants and we’ll be back to our desks ignoring each other for the rest of the day.”

Monica looked up from her phone and looked at Diego straight in the eye for a moment before shrugging, pocketing her phone and turning to the boxes she had laid out on the table. Sighing, Diego made his way next to Monica and asked, “So, what file are we looking for?”

“Captain wants to see if we have any files on some of the dead guys’ neighbors in here since some of them seemed suspicious. Here’s a list of names Detective Beeman handed over.” Monica said, giving the said list to Diego. Looking it over he recognized the list immediately and scoffed in disbelief.

“Morgenthau?”

“You know the case?” when Diego didn’t immediately respond and just looked annoyed, Monica put all the puzzles together herself when she remembered his outburst on the first day she started working here. “Oohh… this used to be your case.”

“Did you just randomly get boxes off these shelves? You do know we have a computer here with a database you can access to pick the right box, right?” Diego snapped as he turned away from Monica to start up a computer at the other side of the room.

Monica wanted nothing more but to snap back at the hot-tempered detective but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and settled for just rolling her eyes and following him to the computer. Diego started typing out the names from the list in silence as Monica leaned on the wall next to the computer and crossed her arms.

“So, just curious, but what got you off the case?” Monica asked, genuinely curious.

“None of your damn business.” Diego muttered, but that didn’t stop Monica from poking at him a bit more.

“Did you get pissed off at an annoying neighbor you almost knifed them? Did you clumsily lose a piece of vital evidence? Oh! I know. You slept with the medical examiner, didn’t you?” suddenly before she even noticed Diego moving, a knife had suddenly embedded itself on the wooden wall only a few inches next to her face.

Diego was pretty much as surprised as Monica that he lost his cool and did that, staring wide eyed at the knife then turning his gaze to an equally wide eyed Monica. There was an awkward silence before Monica swallowed and tried hiding the fact she almost peed herself by smugly saying, “Y-you missed.” although she couldn’t manage to hide the stutter.

Slowly Diego walked up to Monica, who stayed rooted where she was standing until he was uncomfortably close. She looked up at him as he placed one hand on the knife and the other on the other knife-less side of the wall next to her face.

As their gazes met he said in a low voice, “I don’t miss.” and with a small pull he unlodged the knife from the wall and placed it back where he usually keeps them. Walking away from Monica and back towards where the files were he said, “I got the numbers of the folders and boxes we’re supposed to look at.”

Monica exhaled deeply, only just noticing she had been holding her breath the whole time Diego was that close to her. _What the hell was that?_  She thought to herself and all of the sudden the image of Jessica mouthing  _sexual tension_  popped up in her head. She shook her head as if to banish away the thought and followed Diego to wherever he said the files they were looking for were.

**The Captain’s Office**

Diego and Monica pretty much spent the rest of their time in silence at the records room until they found the files the Captain requested. As they exited they still didn’t speak a word or look each other in the eye even as Diego got back to his desk and Monica made her way in the Captain’s office.

“Here are the files you requested, Captain.” she said formally as she placed the folders on the Captain’s desk.

“Thank you, Monica. I hope Detective Hargeeves was able to show you how to properly use the records room.” Captain Lee responded as he started skimming through the files.

“Uhh… yeah, he did.” Monica responded, and detecting something different with her tone the uncle instinct in Captain Lee made him look up at his niece.

“Is something wrong?”

“Huh? No, nothing’s wrong. Why would anything be wrong?”

“Monica, I know you tend to repeat words whenever you’re feeling uncomfortable or when you’re hiding something.”

“Uncle Gwi–I mean, Captain. I’m perfectly fine. Detective Hargreeves is just a bit… uhh… what’s the best way to put this…”

“Prickly?”

“Yes! Scary–wait did you say ‘prickly’? I meant to say prickly.” Monica’s nervous laugh didn’t really help as much but Captain Lee just sighed as he closed the folder he was looking at.

“It’s not really my place to tell you but since you’re notorious for your abrasive attitude–”

“Hey, I’m trying, okay?” Monica interrupted with a pout.

“–I guess I should give you a little bit of background about Detective Hargreeves, seeing as you will be seeing him every day that you work here and at some points assist him when I ask you to.” with this Captain Lee’s look was a mix of concern and sympathy, Monica just wasn’t sure if it was meant for her or for Diego.

“Uhh… okay, I’m all ears, Captain.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chuck berates Diego on what happened between him and Monica.

For the rest of the day whenever Monica had to pass by Diego’s desk the two would force each other to not look or pretend they weren’t even there. Chuck, being the detective he is and sitting right across from Diego, noticed the strange behavior and decided to interrogate his companion as they started packing up to go home. **  
**

“Did something happen between you and Monica?” he asked.

“Huh?” Diego said, pretending he didn’t hear Chuck properly.

“C’mon, Diego.”

“All right, all right. Damn what you get for having detectives as friends, huh?” Diego said with a sigh. “I kinda… threw a knife… at her…” he admitted in a whisper only Chuck can hear as he looked sideways not meeting his shocked face.

“You  _what_?!” Chuck exclaimed, almost too loudly Monica looked up from arranging her stuff at her desk. Diego gave him a warning look and Chuck awkwardly just waved at Monica, who unsuredly waved back and went back to her things. “Diego, are you fucking serious?” he continued in a more hushed tone.

“Hey at least I didn’t actually hit her, okay? You know if I wanted to graze her even just a little I could’ve, but I didn’t. I was hungover with a splitting headache, she got on my nerves with that mouth of hers, and I lost my cool for a second. From the looks of it she hasn’t told the Captain or I wouldn’t be here anymore.”

“But what if you did hit her? Huh?!”

“Chuck, you know my throws have never  _ever_ gone off. Like I said I didn’t hurt her.”

“Ugh, unbelievable… Diego I know that but this is a freaking knife, your deadly accuracy with them, and the Captain’s fucking  _niece_. You better apologize to her.” 

“What? No, if she didn’t tell on me with her uncle, she’s fine.”

“ _Diego_ , I don’t have to tell you twice.” at this Chuck took a more serious and even a little threatening tone which took Diego by surprise a bit. At that same moment Monica was walking towards their direction, intent on passing by without being noticed again so she could exit the precinct in peace. Chuck stood up straighter before calling out to her with a friendly, “Monica! See you tomorrow?”

A bit startled Monica paused for a bit to respond with, “Uhh… yeah, see ya Detective Beeman.” giving a glance at Diego that may have just been a millisecond before she continued walking, this time a lot faster.

Chuck turned back to Diego and made a gesture with his head to go after her. Diego shook his head in protest but when Chuck wouldn’t stop glaring at him he gave out a sigh and rolled his eyes. Diego then proceeded to stack some files on his desk in an excruciatingly slow manner.

“ _Diego_!” Chuck growled.

“All right, all right! Sheesh.”

**Just Outside the Precinct**

Monica had just exited the precinct and was about to start walking home when she heard someone calling out to her.

“Monica! Hey, wait!” turning around she was somewhat not surprised that it was Diego, who caught up with.

“Detective Hargreeves.” Monica responded a little too formally, which made Diego raise his eyebrows.

“You know my first name is Diego, right?”

“Right, right. So um… what do you want?”

With a sigh, Diego started, “Look uhh… I’m sorry about what happened… back at the records room.”

“Oh… that… knife thing…” there was a short pause where the two weren’t looking at each other straight in the eye before Monica continued, “It’s fine, you know. I mean knives don’t get thrown at you everyday so I guess it’s an experience I’ll remember.” she said with a nervous chuckle as she awkwardly patted Diego on his arm, surprised by its firmness and the feel of muscle underneath she added, “Wow. Somebody works out.”

“Yeah, I box.”

“What? Oh shit I thought I was thinking that. Well that just makes things more awkz.” Monica said, wanting nothing more but to make a run for it and hide in her bedroom. “Well if that’s all, Diego. Apology accepted. Goodbye!” she said rushedly and turned her back only to be stopped again with Diego grabbing her arm.

“Waitwaitwait.” he said just as hurriedly as he reached out and grabbed her by the arm. Monica turned to give him a surprised look, and he was just as surprised himself that he had just reached out to grab her like that. Clearing his throat he let go of Monica’s arm and said, “I should probably make it up to you, you know, to say thanks as well for not ratting me out to the Captain.”

“Well,  _mi amigo_ , I may be a bitch but I’m no snitch.” Monica said with a smile that looked like she was holding back a laugh at trying to draw out the true Mexican in Diego.

“Would you stop with the–ugh, anyway, can I get you a coffee?” Diego offered exasperatedly.

“Sorry, champ. Have to decline. It’s my turn to cook dinner at the apartment but since I can’t actually cook I’m just taking out some Chinese food– it’s my roommate and her boyfriend’s favorite. They love it so much just smelling it as I get into the apartment makes them gag.” Monica replied, then she paused as if she was thinking about something. “You can, however, buy me lunch tomorrow.”

“Huh, well okay, what do you want for lunch tomorrow?”

“Pizza.”

“Like a slice?”

“No, a whole box.”

At this Diego raised an eyebrow at Monica before saying, “Seriously? A whole box of pizza? For yourself?”

“Don’t you know it’s rude to judge a girl by her food choices?” Monica retorted, squinting her eyes at Diego like she was giving him a threatening glare. “No objections, Detective. 8 slices, pepperoni and cheese. You can leave the box at the pantry and put my name on it. So if you’ll excuse me, I have to go poison–I mean feed–my roommate and her boyfriend.” with a chuckle Monica turned her back again on Diego and started making her walk home.

Amused, Diego smiled to himself before he too turned the other way to walk towards his car and get home as well.

**The Precinct, The Next Day, Lunch Time**

Diego had just finished the hotdog he was eating from a hotdog stand right outside of the precinct. A while ago he had bought and dropped off his promised pizza at the pantry and signaled Monica about her food.

Gulping down one last big bite at his lunch for the day, he said thanks to the hotdog vendor before heading back up to the precinct. When he got to his desk, Chuck - who was already sitting on his having finished his lunch as well - looked up at Diego and said, “Hey man, haven’t had lunch yet?”

“Just had a hotdog.” Diego replied casually as he sat himself down.

“So did you just order that whole box of pizza for yourself to spite every pizza-loving individual in the precinct?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“There’s literally a box of pizza in the pantry with  _Diego’s, touch and I’ll knife you_  written on the box.” 

Look, I did buy a whole pizza but that wasn’t for me that was for…” Diego paused as the realization dawned on him. He turned to the direction of the assistant’s desk where Monica was taking a noontime nap before work started picking up again.

“Hmm… you were saying?” Chuck said with a smirk, picking up on the sudden pause and looking over at where Diego was looking.

“Umm… you know what, yeah I think I’ll get a slice of that.” Diego responded before standing up and making his way to the pantry.

“I hope you meant the pizza.” Chuck said to himself with a chuckle.

**The Pantry**

Diego had thought Chuck was just exaggerating with what was written on the pizza box but apparently he wasn’t. Right at the middle of the table was the same pizza he got Monica with the words written as Chuck had recited in verbatim.

“She could’ve just told me she couldn’t actually finish a whole box so I wouldn’t have to buy that hotdog…” Diego muttered as he proceeded to open the box, where there were four slices left leaving the other half of the pizza box empty. Nothing really surprising about that, except for the fact that there were four post-its in pink, orange, blue, and yellow right on the empty side of the box, each with a little note written on them that said…

_Sorry for calling you Detective Dickhead._

_Thanks for helping me with the coffee machine._

_Sorry for pissing you off in the records room (and on multiple other occasions)._

_Thank you for not stabbing me??_

But that wasn’t all, right on the underside of the pizza cover Monica had written an additional note.

_Amigos?_

A small smile crept up on Diego’s face as he took a pizza slice out of the box, taking a big bite out of it, he thought maybe the Captain’s assistant wasn’t so bad after all.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego catches Monica working late at the office.

**Three months after**

Ever since that silent peace agreement or ‘pizzagreement’ as Monica would say, the two have been casual at best with each other. They would still throw the occasional insult at each other but now it was really more of playful banter as opposed to purposely trying to get on each other’s nerves.

Shortly after that as well, Chuck was able to solve the Morgenthau case in a rather surprising kind of way. It happened when Monica decided to ignore Diego for fun as he was asking if she could look up a file for him while he had to take a report from yet again another pickpocket victim.

She was scrolling through her phone as he talked and made an off-topic comment about an outrageously expensive ham being sold at $6,000 at a local meat market she passed by while walking home. Although annoyed, Diego’s instincts made the connection almost immediately to the Morgenthau case, and reported it immediately to Chuck and the Captain.

Chuck was able to apprehend and get a confession from the murderer who happened to be one a butcher and the victim’s neighbor, who broke into Morgenthau’s apartment to steal said ham. The Captain had allowed Diego partner up with Chuck during the arrest. This impressed the Captain enough that he told Diego he may start giving him similar cases as long as he controlled his drinking, which Diego is honestly making an effort to do.

Then after a week of Monica passive-aggressively asking for some kind of reward for unintentionally giving Diego a hint that solved his/Chuck’s murder case - she did this by leaving cut outs of the pizza emoji on his desk every morning - Diego relented and got her another whole box of her favorite pepperoni pizza.

She didn’t share that time, though.

Needless to say the two were pretty civil, though one particular habit of Monica’s particularly ticked Diego off a little more than usual.

“Hey, you have the file I asked Captain Lee to sign?” Diego asked as he approached Monica’s table.

“Yup.” responded Monica, holding up a file from her desk.

“Thanks.” as Diego reached out to grab it Monica pulled it out of his reach.

“Whoawhoawhoa, slow down, Hargreeves. Where are your manners?” Monica said with a mock-offended tone.

Rolling his eyes Diego responded with, “Can I  _please_ have that file?”

“No, not the words I’m looking for.”

“I’m not saying it.”

“C’mon, it’s easy, it’s in your blood!”

“No.”

“Say it.”

“Monica…” at this Diego’s tone took a lower note, as if giving a warning to Monica that she was starting to push too far and he wasn’t having it.

“Geez is it really that hard to say  _por favor_?” Monica said defeatedly as she handed over the files to Diego.

“I’d appreciate it if you stopped trying to get me to speak Mexican.” at this Diego started walking away from Monica to get back to his desk.

“Not even a  _gracias_? Man, this guy is rude.” Monica muttered to herself before getting back to her work.

**Later that Evening**

It was already a bit late when Diego got back to the precinct after investigating a jewelry store robbing with Chuck. Chuck only briefly went back inside to clock out at the door before saying goodbye to Diego, who said he left his jacket at his desk and since he’s left it there for some time it may just be high time to take it home and throw it in the laundry.

When he reached their office the place was mostly dim except for light coming from the pantry. Curious but also a bit alarmed at who may be staying this late, Diego slowly approached the pantry with one hand ready on one of his knives.

He heard some movement in the pantry and low muttering sounds, which was enough to confirm someone was indeed there. When he heard a loud BANG! he instinctively rushed into the pantry and threw his knife, which hit the cupboard right next to the figure he deliberately missed in case it may have just been someone from the precinct, and it was.

“Jesus Christ, Diego! I thought we talked about the knife thing!” screamed a wide eyed Monica.

“Monica?” Diego said, surprised.

“Umm… yes it’s me you dumbfuck. You could’ve killed me!”

“Trust me, if I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.” while saying this he had approached the spot where his knife had lodged into the wooden cupboard and pulled it out before facing Monica. “What the hell are you doing here so late anyway?”

“Oh, thank you so much for your kind mercy, Mr. Stabbity McStabstab.” Monica said as she folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “I was working overtime, I’m helping the Captain with his report on the precinct’s stats for a presentation he’s having tomorrow. My roommate and her boyfriend are out on their date night anyway so I thought I’d just get something to eat here before heading home.”

“From a vending machine… full of junk food?”

“Just wanted a quick meal, man. I hate eating alone, but I can’t just stop Jessie and Ben from their date.” there was a pause before she realized she went a little personal so she quickly looked away from Diego before continuing, “Seems like the machine’s busted though since it got my money but shit ain’t coming out. I kicked it but that didn’t work either.”

“Well you haven’t exactly been very friendly to it.” Diego joked.

“Very funny, Hargreeves.” at this Monica started walking out of the pantry, and before he knew what he was doing he was following Monica as she made her way to her desk to get her things.

“I kinda just got back and haven’t eaten too. Maybe we could get something to eat and I can take you home.” Diego offered.

At this Monica laughed as she looked at Diego, “Are you asking me out?”

“Can you just let me be nice without making it weird?” was Diego’s tired response.

“I live to make things weird. But okay. Hurry up, I’m starving. I get to choose where we eat.” slinging her bag on her shoulder, Monica started walking before Diego even had time to think about where they were eating.

“Hey wait a second.” Diego said as he caught up to Monica.

“You’re paying right?” Monica asked, not stopping as they both found their way out of the office and into the lobby.

“What?” Diego responded, making Monica gasp.

“Halfsies on our first date? Man, you’re terrible at this.”

“This is  _not_ a date. Don’t make me regret my offer.” 

“Grumpy, much.”

Clearly Monica was enjoying every moment she was annoying Diego, who in turn was starting to regret ever offering to accompany Monica and bring her home.

As they left the precinct and got into Diego’s car, though, there was one thing that was for sure.

He left his jacket at the office.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego shares a bit about his past and his former partner.

Monica was smiling from ear to ear though unfortunately it was the opposite with the person sitting in front of her, whose jaw was set so tightly you’d think he’d grind his teeth to dust.

“Feel at home,  _mi amigo_?” Monica taunted.

“I should’ve aimed for your head.” Diego responded.

“Sourpuss.”

In her ever persistent gag at trying to bring out the Mexican in Diego, Monica had dragged him into a nearby Mexican-themed diner. Of course, Diego had refused and was intent on driving right by it, but when Monica threatened to tell the Captain he had thrown a knife at her not only once  _but twice_ , Diego forced himself to park by the diner.

Diego hadn’t stopped glaring at Monica even until now where they were seated across from each other in a booth and a waitress was waiting on their order. The waitress had been stealing glances at Diego who, despite his menacing expression, still looked pretty dashing.

Monica had noticed this ever since the waitress walked up to them and only flashed Diego a smile which he barely acknowledged. She couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of annoyance.

“Well, Hargreeves, you can glare at me all night. I’m hungry and I want to order…  _pollo quesadilla_ , please.” Monica said as she pointed to the item on the menu and looked at the waitress, who didn’t appear to be listening to her as she was too busy waiting on  _Diego’s_ order. “Excuse me?” she prompted with an impatient smile, which got the waitress’ attention.

“Oh, sorry, Ma’am. All right, that’s one order of  _pollo quesadilla_  and what will uhh… Sir have?” the waitress asked with a blush. Monica had the sudden urge to punch her in the face.

“Burrito. Spicy. Pork.” Diego said stoically and the waitress jotted it down a little too enthusiastically.

“I’ll be right back with your orders.” she said before she left. Monica looked over her shoulder to find the waitress stopping briefly by a fellow waitress as they both glanced at their table and exchanged giggles.

“Pretty popular with the ladies, huh?” she muttered, turning back to Diego.

“Jealous?” he said with a smirk.

“Pfft, hardly.” responded Monica with a scoff. “You’re not exactly Ben level.”

“Who?”

“Ben, my roommate’s boyfriend. Blonde, British, green eyes, face of an angel, 6-pack. The whole thing.”

“Pretty high standards, I’d lower them if I were you.” Diego said snidely.

“Eh, he’s not exactly my type.” Monica said with a shrug.

“What about Chuck?” Diego asked, curious as to where this conversation would take them.

“Chuck’s a nice guy but I’m pretty sure I emphasized on my first day working at the precinct how I didn’t like cops.”

“Well, I’d say it’s an improvement since you hated cops and now you just don’t like cops.”

“Why are you so interested in this?” when Monica asked this it took Diego a bit by surprise, and it made him mentally ask himself that as well.

“And why do you have such a strong dislike for cops?” he responded, dodging the question with one of his own. “Did you get arrested before or something?” he joked.

He saw Monica’s expression change from playful to shocked or maybe even scared for an instant before the waitress came back with their food and set their plates on the table.

“Oh! This looks good.” she said with a smile on her face, erasing the traces of her previous expression as she started digging in to one of her quesadillas.

“Thanks.” Diego said to the waitress.

“Just call me if you need anything.” the waitress replied with a smile before leaving.

“Hey, looks like she left you something.” Monica said, referring to a piece of paper the waitress seemed to have slipped next to Diego’s food. When Diego picked it up to see a phone number written on it he rolled his eyes and ripped it to pieces, much to the dismay of the waitress who was watching them. Monica watched the said waitress ran for the kitchen in embarrassment before turning back to Diego. “Harsh.” she said.

“I wasn’t interested.” Diego stated plainly as he took a bite out of his burrito.

“There are more merciful ways to turn a girl down, Hargreeves. Maybe if you went on a date you’d be less stiff.”

“I don’t date. Not anymore.” suddenly the conversation took a solemn note at what Diego said. There was a short silence before Monica noticed they had both stopped eating.

“Hey… you know… my uncle… kind of told me a bit about you on that day you first threw a knife at me.” she started to say slowly, gauging what to say or do next by assessing how Diego reacted to what she just told him.

Diego wasn’t looking at her and instead was staring down at the burrito he wasn’t touching, his hands closed into a tight fist.

“Sorry.” Monica said softly. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” when Diego still wasn’t looking at her, she let out a soft sigh and decided to go back to eating her quesadilla although she had lost most of her appetite.

“We were… on the verge of solving a drug case.” Diego started, and Monica looked back at him, listening intently. “It was a new cartel, but it was growing fast. Eudora…” he paused a bit at the mention of her name before taking a deep breath and continuing. “Eudora and I tracked down the suppliers and got to them first. We didn’t head right in, of course, we were supposed to wait for backup.”

“But… but when we got there, they were packing up. It appears someone may have told them we knew where they were and didn’t waste any time packing up to relocate. Eudora and I were tracking these guys for months and I wasn’t about to just let them slip by.”

“She didn’t agree with me at first. It was pretty dangerous, but I was confident I could stall them myself while we waited for backup. I mean, when I was with the Umbrella Academy I did survive a bunch of tough situations when I was a  _kid_. I thought this wouldn’t be any different.”

“I told her she could wait for backup by the car and left. But like any sane person, she followed me, even told me she could take care of herself.” at this a small yet sad smile creeped into Diego’s face. “I didn’t have the time to try and convince her to go back and wait. So, we raided the place, one of the biggest mistakes you can possibly do if you had a measly force of two people. Even if we were pretty damn amazing cops. We struggled but I thought I had everything under control since we somehow managed not to let anyone escape.”

“There were fewer people than we expected, at that time we didn’t think about the ones who may have left already we just wanted to stay alive while backup was coming. Plus, we had a visual on their drug leader still in the compound so we took our chances. Needless to say we had our hands full. We didn’t even notice the drug leader getting into his car until we heard engines revving… or in my case, until I saw the headlights flashing in my eyes.”

At this Diego took a pause to take a deep breath before continuing. “The car was parked inside for… you know… obvious reasons, since they were moving stuff out. I was a literal deer caught in the headlights. I would’ve been done for if… if…” his jaw tightened as he found it hard to continue the words he was going to say, his stutter starting to act up. “Eudora she… she… s-she pushed me out but the car was too close for her to avoid. Next thing I know there was this a… a-awful… crashing sound.”

“Everything was all a blur after that… the drug leader sped past as I crawled my way to where she was, screaming her name. Backup came in time to stop the car and apprehend everyone who was left but Eudora she… she was in bad shape. I held her. I yelled. I tried to get her to w… to w… to w-wake up but she just wasn’t responding.”

“We got her to the hospital but the doctor’s said the impact was too strong and when she landed she hit her head on the concrete. She just… she…” Diego exhaled shakily as he looked up at Monica, who eyes were also brimming with tears from just hearing this story.

“I… I… I-I couldn’t… I couldn’t… I couldn’t p… p-protect her.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time we take a peek into Monica's past before she became the Captain's assistant.

The two just sat there in silence, Monica letting Diego’s story sink in as she subtly wiped a stray tear that escape from one of her eyes. Exhaling softly she looked at Diego before saying, “I… I don’t know what to say.”

There was a pause before Diego responded with, “You don’t have to say anything.”

Before she knew it her hand was reaching from across the table and found its way on top of Diego’s tightly clenched fist. He looked at her in surprise but as she did a soft caress the tension in his fist started to soften bit by bit. “I’m sorry… about Eudora… and I’m sorry for bringing it up…” Monica started to say. “I uhh… I lost someone too, back when I was in high school.”

Taking her hand away from Diego, she began her story, “Before I moved to New York my parents and I used to live in a small suburb in Michigan. My dad was a cop there, still is actually…” when Diego gave her a surprised look at finding out her dad was a cop she continued with, “Yeah, real shocker. Anyway. He was a Sergeant, to be specific, and he was good. But he was… too good, you know what I mean? He spent most of his time in the precinct than he did at home… so most of the time it was just me and my mom.”

“It was okay, you know. I had my mom, so I just got used to not having my dad around all the time. When I got to high school I always wanted to move and go to a university here for college, but I felt bad about leaving my mom behind so I considered just staying. But she convinced me to go, saying I shouldn’t let her stop me from achieving what I wanted.”

“But then on my graduating year at high school something happened to her. She started getting really sick. She would always have these stomach aches, she was tired all the time, she was losing weight, and when she’d go to the bathroom she never felt like she was relieved. When she told me she saw blood one time when she went to the bathroom, I took her to the doctor and… I couldn’t believe my ears.”

“She had Stage 4 colon cancer and… the doctors weren’t positive about her outlook but they said they would do their best to at least prolong her life a bit. I never fought so hard in my entire life to not breakdown and cry, but I had to for my mom. I just held her and told her everything was going to be alright. She just looked at me and smiled, saying whatever happens to her, she’d be happy as long as I was by her side.”

“And where was my dad during that time? Doing his usual shit at the precinct again. I don’t actually remember maybe he was out arresting someone but the point is he wasn’t there. I had to be strong for my mom all by myself. When he eventually got to the hospital while I was settling my mom into her room and I told him the news, he did actually look genuinely concerned, and he promised he’d be with me as much as possible to help me with mom.”

“But that never happened… it’s almost like he was at the precinct 24/7 while I rushed to the hospital everyday after school just to be with my mom. As long as she was at the hospital, I literally lived there as well. I slept, bathed, changed, ate, and left the hospital for school and came back like it was a normal routine. I was the one who helped her through her chemotherapy, I would tell her stories to keep her motivated. I gave up moving to New York, actually gave up on college in general so I could spend all my time with her.”

“But everyday… she just kept getting weaker and weaker. And the whole time she was at the hospital I never saw my dad once. When I asked her if he dropped by she wouldn’t answer, so I just assumed he was drowning himself in his work. One day I just snapped and instead of going to the hospital after school I stormed into my dad’s precinct. I found him talking to one of his detectives at his desk but I didn’t care if people were staring at me or if they kept telling me I shouldn’t be storming in there without permission.”

“I demanded him to spend more time with mom in the hospital, and that he should be ashamed that he’s just leaving his wife and his daughter alone like that. He was saying shit like how I wasn’t supposed to be just walking right up here or how we could talk somewhere else but I didn’t care. I wasn’t finished with all the nasty stuff I was yelling at him when I got a call from the hospital.”

“I felt my blood run cold when I heard what the doctor said on the other line. That my mom… she… she was in a critical condition.” at this Monica had to take a deep breath to compose herself. “My dad probably told from my expression and how I dashed out of the precinct faster than a cat chasing after a mouse. My dad caught up with me and we ended up taking his car to the hospital but we didn’t say anything on the way.”

“When we got there the doctors were already taking out the machines from her body and she… she wasn’t breathing. We were too late. All I remember then was me just screaming, bawling all the pent up emotions I tried to keep away so I could act strong for her. I could’ve just ignored my dad and went straight to the hospital, so at least when she passed she wasn’t alone and I could’ve held her hand. But I let my anger get the best of me and neither me nor my dad were there in her final moments.”

“I never spoke with my dad since. Not during her funeral or after. I just quietly grabbed my stuff from our house and left. No note. The time we started speaking again when I…” she stopped herself abruptly, as if she was trying to conceal something she shouldn’t divulge. “When I uhh… graduated. Apparently Jessie found a way to contact him so he would be there in my graduation. We didn’t speak much but had a silent agreement to maybe be civil. But I could never forgive him for not being there when it mattered.”

“Eventually I needed a job and that’s when he found out Uncle Gwilym needed an assistant and since he was so persistent that I take it… well, I guess you can say the rest is history.” Monica exhaled deeply as she looked at Diego with finality. “That’s why I hate cops. But my actual point here is… the people we love, they’re still with us and watching us. And the last thing they want to see is us being fucked up. You know what I mean?”

Diego contemplated in silence for a while. Usually when someone would give him that ‘she wouldn’t want to see you like this’ crap he’d snap at that person like he did with Chuck. But with Monica, in a way she knew where he was coming from, and the kind of pain he was dealing with.

Finally, he responded with, “Yeah… I guess I do…”

“Hey, you’re getting a good start after that Morgenthau case. No more grumpy, hungover detective and you’re working on more serious cases now instead of that pickpocket shit. Honestly, I get how pickpockets are crafty little fucks, but if you live in New York you gotta find some way to be less susceptible right?” Monica said, trying to shift the conversation away from this gloomy topic. “But then again, maybe those girl victims are doing it on purpose so they can cry in the arms of the handsome Detective Diego Hargreeves.” she said mockingly which made Diego snicker.

“So you admit I’m handsome?” he said with a smirk.

“What? Who said you were handsome I definitely didn’t say you were handsome.” Monica said, her cheeks flushing as her insult backfired and she was fumbling with her words. “My quesadilla is getting handsome… I mean cold.” she said, changing the topic as she started eating again.

A small smile plastered itself on Diego’s face before he too started eating again after leaving his burrito alone for a while. He never thought he would open himself up again like that after what happened with Eudora, but for some reason, it just felt… different with Monica.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego gives Monica a challenge she cannot refuse.

For the rest of the evening Diego and Monica were pretty much back at their usual banter. Monica tried to trick Diego into reading something on the menu that was in Mexican to which he responded, word for word, with “Keep pushing it and you’ll lose a finger.”

He didn’t have to say it twice for Monica to drop the menu, but she did go back to teasing Diego on how lame of a date he was. It was still pretty annoying as he kept emphasizing they were colleagues getting dinner together, but he guessed it was better than having her try to get him to say something in Mexican.

When the two split the bill it only fueled Monica’s teasing and when Diego argued on how it was a modern world where women don’t always need guys to do or pay for everything, she just replied with, “That’s what all the cheapskate’s say.” holding back a laugh as she handed her share of the dinner.

Eventually Diego drove her home and they had reached her apartment.

“Well, at least you drove me home, Hargreeves. Guess I’ve had worse dates.” Monica said as she leaned back on the passenger’s seat and gave Diego a taunting look.

“You’re either deaf or you just don’t like listening to me.” Diego said, referring to the million times he had to remind Monica they weren’t on a date.

“Take a wild guess. Thanks for the ride.” she responded, flashing Diego a snide grin before opening the car door to step outside.

“You’re not exactly giving me a fair chance, Lee. Let’s go on an actual date then.” he said suddenly, which stopped Monica before she could step out of the car. She turned to Diego with an incredulous look on her face.

“What?”

“I’m officially asking you out.”

“Why?”

“To prove a point.” he said with a straight face. At that Monica composed herself from her initial shock, realizing she had just irked Diego enough to challenge him to take her on a nice date. It still wasn’t going to be an actual date… was it?

“Well, you’re on. What are the stakes?” she asked.

“Huh?” Diego asked, confused.

“It’s a challenge right? Like if I don’t enjoy the date, what do I get? And if I actually,  _genuinely_ enjoy the date, what do you get?”

“Doesn’t that sound a bit one-sided?”

“Hmm… okay, if we  _both_ end up enjoying. But we gotta be honest about it.”

Diego took a second to think for a bit before responding, “I can do that. All right, how about if I win you stop getting me to speak Mexican all the time?”

“WHAT?! C’mon, man! You can’t take that fun away from me.” Monica whined as she tried to win Diego’s pity with a pout and sad eyes.

“It’s non-negotiable.” he said with a straight face.

“Ugh, fine.” with a huff, Monica continued. “But if I win and the date actually does suck, you  _have_ to at least say one word in Mexican everyday in my presence for the rest of your life.”

“Rest of my life? Really?”

“Lessen the sentence on your deal and I’ll lessen mine. Still making your deal ‘non-negotiable’?”

“Fine, a year?”

“Too long.”

“Six months?”

“Three months.”

“Okay, deal.”

“Now let’s make it official.” at this Monica whipped out her phone and started typing away, Diego raised a curious eyebrow as he craned his head to try and take a look at what she was doing.

“What are you doing?”

“Making a contract.” she said matter-of-factly, and after a few more minutes of fast-typing she presented the text on her phone to Diego which said:

_I, Diego Hargreeves, officially ask Monica Lee out on a date. This is to prove that I don’t, in fact, suck at dates._

_On the grounds that both parties genuinely enjoy their time together, the agreement is for Monica Lee to stop asking me, Diego Hargreeves, to speak in Mexican for three (3) months._

_On the other hand, should any of the one parties genuinely not enjoy the date, the agreement is for I, Diego Hargreeves, to speak at least one (1) Mexican word everyday for three (3) months in the presence of Monica Lee._

_The undersigned hereby acknowledge and agree to the above terms._

_Diego Hargreeves_

_Monica Lee_

“Seriously?” he said in disbelief as he shot Monica a look.

“Humor me. I’ve been Uncle Gwim’s assistant for three months.” she said, shoving her phone closer to Diego to insist that he sign it.

Shrugging, Diego tapped the space above his name and started drawing his signature on the phone’s screen. When he was done, Monica did the same thing above her name before saving the file on her phone.

“And we have a deal, Hargreeves.”

**Friday, the Day of the Date, the Precinct Evidence Locker**

“So about three months ago the two of you were at each other’s throats… and tonight, you’re going on a date?” Chuck said as Diego organized some evidence they collected into one of the lockers.

“You’re talking like it’s an actual date.” he responded.

“Did you ask for the Captain’s blessing?” Chuck joked as he chuckled.

“For what? I told you. I’m just trying to prove a point that I am not a sucky date. Plus if I win she stops with her mission to get me to say something in Mexican.”

“Hey, don’t get me wrong, man. I’m just… happy for you, I guess. This is something.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Is it?”

At this Diego paused and looked at Chuck, who raised an eyebrow at him. He looked away and without saying a word, he closed the locker and made his way out, leaving Chuck behind.

Smiling to himself, Chuck said, “Well, goodluck.”

**After Work, Monica’s Apartment**

“This is a bad idea.” Jessica said in disapproval as she leaned on the doorway to Monica’s room, where the other woman was rummaging through her closet for something to wear.

“Jessie, don’t make such a big deal out of it. It’s not exactly a  _date_ date it’s just a bet.” she responded. “Now help me pick something to wear.”

“Maica, remember the first time you told me about this guy and how you never want to get involved with him?”

“Uhh… yeah?”

“Remember  _why_?”

“Hmm… because he’s a Hargreeves?”

“ _Exactly_.”

“Jessie, for the nth time, this is not a ‘real’ date. Plus, Diego’s… nice.” Monica said a little more softly as she scrutinized a blouse so she wouldn’t see Jessica’s shocked expression.

“‘ _Nice_ ’? Did you just call him ‘ _nice_ ’? Ah shit.” she exclaimed before turning her head towards the kitchen. “Ben! Honey, get in here.” she called out.

“What seems to be the problem?” Ben asked as he stepped beside his girlfriend.

“Maica just called this Diego guy ‘nice’.” Jessica answered.

“Oh shit, you like him?” Ben said as he turned to Monica.

“No! Will you two stop overreacting?! He’s going to be here by 7 and I still don’t know what the fuck I’m going to wear.” Monica said frustratedly as she started throwing random pieces of clothing on her bed.

“Well then, why go through the effort picking out something nice to wear if you don’t like him?” Ben asked cooly. “I mean if it’s not a ‘real’ date, why can’t you just wear what you usually wear?”

When Monica didn’t respond and pretended to be too busy sorting through her heap of clothes, Jessica crossed her arms in front of her and said in a warning tone, “Maica.”

“All right, fine. If the two of you aren’t going to help me then get out of here. Google is my new friend now.” Monica said heatedly as she pushed Jessica and Ben out of her room and slammed the door on their faces.

Jessica let out a big sigh and in response Ben put his arm around her shoulders and held her closer. Leaning into his embrace, Jessica laid her head on his shoulder.

“She’ll be all right, love.” Ben said softly as he laid a kiss on her forehead.

“Well…” Jessica started, her face straight. “If he screws up like the last one, I’ll kill him.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get a bit heated in a seemingly innocent arcade game.

Leaning on the outside of his car, Diego felt as if eyes were on him as he waited for Monica just outside the steps leading up to her apartment. It wasn’t too threatening, but it did make him feel uncomfortable. 

Looking up he thought he saw a woman around Monica’s age glaring at him from her window. He looked around to see if she may have been looking at something else but he confirmed he was the only person standing right in the direction of her glare.

“Hey, watcha lookin’ for?” 

“Oh! Hey…” Monica’s voice startled him a bit and when he turned to look at her he found his voice trailing off. She had on a white longsleeved button-down shirt tucked into an olive green shorts, finishing off nicely with a pair of white sneakers for a more casual look. 

It was probably the first time he saw her without stockings, and she had a nice pair of legs.

“So I’m guessing you like what I’m wearing.” Monica said with a chuckle, which caught Diego by surprise as he cleared his throat.

“Well, uhh… you look great.” he said.

“Thanks.” she responded as a blush crept on her cheeks. 

“Hey umm… this is a weird question but do you happen to know who lives up there?” Diego asked as he pointed to the window where the woman who had been glaring at him was now gone. Monica took a quick look to where he was pointing before turning back to him and responding.

“Oh that’s where I live, why?” 

“What? Oh… you said you had a roommate, right?”

“Yeah… why the sudden interest?”

“Uhh… nothing it’s just… nice curtains.” Diego said awkwardly before he turned away from Monica to open the door to the passenger’s side. “Let’s get going.”

“Oh, a gentleman for the night, I see. Well, Hargreeves it’ll take more than that to impress me.” Monica said as she climbed into Diego’s car. As Diego walked towards the driver’s side and got in, Monica grabbed his attention before he started the car, “Hey, Diego.”

“What?” he said as he looked at her.

“Since we’re on a date, can I call you  _papi_?” she asked, batting her eyelashes pleadingly.

“No.”

**The Date Venue**

Knowing how much Monica loved pizza Diego couldn’t have thought of a better place to take her out than a popular pizza parlor. Another thing is, the parlor wasn’t just popular for its pizza goodness, it was in an arcade too. 

“I hate you.” Monica said, before taking in another big bite out of her favorite pepperoni and cheese pizza. 

“Do you admit defeat?” Diego responded confidently in between bites. 

“Well since we agreed we’d be honest with each other and we did sign a contract…” she started after swallowing. “You had me the moment we walked in and I smelled the cheese.”

“And I thought you were ‘hard to impress’.” Diego said, laughing.

“Oh shut up.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

“Say what?”

“Say that Diego Hargreeves is the best date you ever had. No wait…  _Detective_ Diego Hargreeves.”

“Really feeding your ego there huh?” at this Monica raised an eyebrow at Diego. “How ‘bout I say  _papi_ is the best date I ever had?”

“I didn’t agree to you calling me that.” 

“Well, we didn’t write in the contract that I would say that either.”

“Fine, why don’t we make another wager then? We are at an arcade, after all. We play the same games and whoever gets the most tickets wins.” 

“I think you have a gambling problem since we’ve been making some deals and bets lately.” Monica said with a chuckle.

“I don’t have a gambling problem, but she probably does.” Diego said as his gaze went towards an overweight, middle-aged woman who had been sitting at one of the machines ever since they got there - she was probably even there before they arrived. The machine was shaped like a vertical, transparent cylinder with another tube inside at the far back. On the bottom there was a revolving circular plate with holes that had numbers labeled on each hole. Outside the bigger cylinder was a big red button right above the slot where you put in a token. 

The concept of the game was simple, you put in a token and press the big red button. Afterwards, a red ball comes out of the smaller tube inside and bounces around, landing in either one of the random holes on the circular plate. Depending on the number labeled on the hole the ball gets in, that’s the number of tickets you get.

Now this woman had a whole bag of tokens she just kept jamming into the machine and pressing the red button. She had already accumulated a significant mound of tickets it was a wonder why she hadn’t been called out by the staff yet. 

“No, I think she’s just trying to curb one.” Monica commented as the two found themselves staring in awe at the woman. Feeling two pairs of eyes on her the woman turned to the two and gave a mean look.

“Mind your own business!” she yelled which prompted Diego and Monica to look away awkwardly.

“All right, Diego. What game do we play? And don’t say that basketball game since it would be totally unfair with you controlling what you throw and shit.” Monica said.

“Why don’t we both pick games? Ladies first.” Diego responded.

“Hmmm… well I know just the game. Let’s go!” Monica said excitedly, taking Diego’s hand as he pulled him to where they can buy tokens and ignoring the fact she had felt the tiniest flutter in her stomach at touching his skin.

**Game One**

 

The pair found themselves standing in front of a  _Just Dance_  console, the machine’s lights pulsating to the beat of its standby music as it waited for players to insert their tokens and start playing. 

“Really?” Diego said in disbelief.

“No turning back now! Fair warning, I got the moves.” Monica said confidently as she pumped her chest, making Diego snicker.

“And you think I don’t?” he responded.

“Oohhh… I like a challenge. Okay I think this machine allows three songs, and since you appear to be confident, we’ll just keep selecting random and let the machine decide for us.”

“All right with me.” 

The two then put in their tokens and Monica selected the random option, and after a few seconds of spinning across the song selection the game chose a version of [Shut Up and Dance With Me](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FiuOS077mAH4&t=ZGI5MjJjY2JlZjY0MTIzOWI1NjYxNzY5N2JiYjFhZTljMDlhMzUzNSxMUlp0WVBiQQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AUIXELl5gl2QagJIXyRKS5A&p=https%3A%2F%2Fumbureraakademi.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F185886850534%2Fintroductory-note-about-the-au-other-chapters&m=1) for couples.

“Not bad for a first song, you ready?” Monica commented.

“Are  _you_ ready?” Diego taunted, at that Monica just responded with a scoff as she started up the song.

It was a fun and upbeat song which had them mostly dancing individually. There was a part where Diego had to put his arm around Monica which was manageable, and though it was brief it made the two a little bit conscious. This resulted in them fumbling in the next partner move, where they each had to hold the other’s leg up at a time and pretend they were strumming a guitar. Finally at the last pose they had to hold each other’s hands as Monica spun towards Diego’s direction where the latter was supposed to catch her, but this caught Diego off guard as he caught her a little too late that she almost hit the ground, resulting in a helpless yelp from Monica who was fuming.

“HARGREEVES I SWEAR DROP ME AGAIN AND I’LL KNIFE YOU.” she yelled as she slapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, I still caught you.” Diego retorted.

“MERELY INCHES FROM HITTING MY HEAD! Pull me up before I hit you again.” she demanded and Diego obliged, helping her stand up straight. “All right, so this game is probably going to keep giving us couple songs so if none of us want to get hurt we have to take this seriously. Or else the bet is off and I will officially _not enjoy_  this date.” she added, folding her arms and glaring at Diego.

“All right, all right. I’m sorry. Chill.” Diego said, putting his hands up in surrender but fighting back a chuckle seeing how angry Monica was. He thought she looked cute. 

“Okay, you select random this time.” Monica said, and after Diego selected the random select option and another few seconds of the game spinning, it had stopped on [Mambo No. 5](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2Fz_Sv7IQwBGo&t=NDA4ODJlY2QxZGU3ZjdlYjQ2YzRlMDRlNWZhMWExMmY2MzcyZWRkOCxMUlp0WVBiQQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AUIXELl5gl2QagJIXyRKS5A&p=https%3A%2F%2Fumbureraakademi.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F185886850534%2Fintroductory-note-about-the-au-other-chapters&m=1). “Oh my God I love this song! It has my name on it!” Monica exclaimed, her mood switching instantly to being like an excited little girl.

“Title reminds me of my brother…” Diego muttered underneath his breath.

“What was that?” Monica asked, not catching what he said.

“Nothing, let’s just get this going.”

Just as they both promised, they started taking the moves more seriously for not just the individual parts, but the partner parts as well. Despite that, Monica was still surprised that Diego actually followed the male role in kissing the female role’s hand. Although she convinced herself it was an act to get more points, she could’ve sworn his kiss stayed a bit longer than the actual one the male role did in the game. This time they nailed the final pose, and their faces ended up a little close but that almost didn’t bother them this time.

“Seems like you do got some moves in you, Hargreeves.” Monica complimented in between pants.

“That? That was just a warm up.” Diego said with a smirk, which made Monica blush though she tried to hide it with a smile. Diego supported her as she straightened herself up from the last pose in preparation for the next dance, Monica feeling a tingling in her skin where Diego held her. 

“Last song.” she declared, letting the machine do its work again as they waited for it to land on their third and final dance number, turning out to be [Bailando](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbyKbbcLQQnM%26list%3DWL%26index%3D4%26t%3D0s&t=YzlkMjMwYzA0ZDM3MTYzMmViNzFjYzUyMTczNWZkYWIwZmQzYzgwMSxMUlp0WVBiQQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AUIXELl5gl2QagJIXyRKS5A&p=https%3A%2F%2Fumbureraakademi.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F185886850534%2Fintroductory-note-about-the-au-other-chapters&m=1). At this Monica couldn’t help but laugh and Diego knew all too well why she was laughing.

“Don’t say it.” he said threateningly.

“What? I didn’t say anything.” Monica responded innocently.

“I know what you’re thinking and you want to say it.”

“Do you want me to say it then?”

“No.”

“All right, all right.” at this Monica had stopped laughing and started up the song, but before they started dancing she whispered, “It’s the song of your people.” to which Diego just rolled his eyes.

This song was pretty different from the previous two songs they danced to. It had more partner moves which meant more times they were holding hands, holding each other, looking at each other, touching each other… it was more  _sensual_. However, instead of making them feel awkward it just got them more into the dance, the awkwardness replaced this time with a different feeling - one that had them wanting the moments when their skins touched even for the briefest of moments. 

It was at this point when instead of keeping a decent distance for the partner parts their bodies were basically pressed up against one another. During the parts where the male role had to hold the female role from behind, Diego had the opportunity to take in the sweet smell of Monica’s hair. During the parts where they had to face each other and Monica had to put Diego’s face in her hands, their faces seemed to be getting closer and closer each time until Monica would nearly forget about the next move, getting lost in his deep brown eyes. 

Finally when they got to the final pose, instead of Monica arching her back like the female role as she held Diego’s face in her hands she couldn’t keep her eyes off of Diego’s. The two were both sweating and panting. Their cheeks were flushed and their skin burned from the places where they held and touched each other. It could possibly just be from the effort of dancing, but they both knew it was something a lot more than that.

They were just staring at each other now with Monica’s hands gently placed on the sides of Diego’s face and Diego holding her with one arm. A million thoughts were running through his head, mainly on the previous moments he spent with Monica up until this one. She was unbearable at first but after making peace he had to admit, she was good company to keep around. She is annoying, but she understood him. 

Was he ready to do this again, though? He knew he would never truly be over Patch, but he acknowledged that perhaps… it was time to start anew.

For Monica she felt just the same. She also thought about how he was unbearable at first, but she admitted he was one of the persons she looked forward to seeing everyday at the precinct. Her constant teasing may have just been her way of getting his attention. Their random conversations at work and even just greeting each other everyday at work made her feel that maybe the precinct wasn’t the shittiest place in the world after all. 

But that didn’t change the fact that he  _is_ a Hargreeves, and Jessica’s nagging at how getting involved with him would not be a good idea for her was holding her back from these… feelings.

Then, as if he was doing this subconsciously, Diego found himself leaning in closer to Monica, who stood still as she too noticed their faces getting closer and closer. 

When they were practically inches apart and could feel each other breathing, Monica stopped him by giving a slight push to his shoulders. 

“I-I think I want to go home.” she said softly, forcing herself to pull away from Diego’s gaze as she looked away.

Diego felt his heart sink but he kept his composure. Taking his arm off of Monica he cleared his throat and said, in a voice as soft as Monica’s, “I’ll get the bill.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get a bit awkward between Monica and Diego, but apparently not for long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SMUT WARNING FOR THIS CHAP.

The ride home was deadly quiet, with Diego just keeping his eyes fixed on the road as he drove, and Monica staring out the window in the passenger’s seat. Due to the deafening silence it felt like forever until they had reached Monica’s apartment, but eventually they did and Monica started unbuckling the seatbelt. 

“Thanks for everything.” Monica said quietly, breaking the silence but still not looking straight at Diego.

“Sure no problem.” Diego responded automatically, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. When he noticed Monica wasn’t getting out of the car yet he looked at her briefly before looking away again and saying, “Want me to uhh… walk you up?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure. That’d be great.” she responded with an awkward smile. Diego proceeded to park his car properly and switch it off before the two got out and they started walking into the apartment complex.

The apartment Monica shared with Jessica and Ben was on the third floor so they took the elevator, and the whole time they still weren’t saying a single word to each other. Also, despite getting so close during their dance together they were now putting distance between themselves so they wouldn’t touch, like they were allergic to each other.

Soon after the elevator rung its familiar ding to Monica and as it opened she stepped out of it first, followed closely by Diego as they walked through the halls. Eventually, Monica stopped at one of the doors and turned to Diego.

“This is me.” she said, pointing to the door. 

“Right. I guess… I’ll see you on Monday, then?” Diego responded.

“Yeah. See you.”

“Sorry for… making this awkward.” 

“I should apologize too.”

For a while the two looked at each other in silence, dreading what was to come on Monday when they saw each other again at work. Chuck is possibly going to notice the tension right away and start asking questions. And if they were really obvious, maybe even Captain Lee would start noticing, but he didn’t seem like the person to butt in on his detectives’ or his niece’s personal business.

“I’ll get going then.” Diego said softly, to which Monica simply nodded in response as she pulled out her keys, opened the door to her apartment and stepped inside. A heavy sigh escaped Diego as he shoved his hands in his jeans and turned to walk away, disappointed.

He took four steps before he felt someone grab him by his arm and pull him in a way that spun him around. The first thing he noticed was Monica’s apartment door wide open before he noticed Monica herself standing in front of him.

“Mon–” before he could even finish calling her out and asking what she was doing she placed her hands on the sides of his head like in the last dance they did and planted her lips on his. Surprised but relishing in her sweet taste Diego responded favorably, reciprocating by kissing her back and wrapping his arms around her frame.

One of Monica’s hands moved from the side of his face to the back of his head, her fingers going through his hair as she pressed her body closer to his, deepening the kiss. The other hand had moved to his nape.

When they broke off from the kiss their foreheads stayed pressed against one another as they both had to catch up on their breathing. Their arms stayed around each other and as Monica stared into Diego’s eyes she was the first to break their silence.

“I really like you.” she said.

“Think that kiss was evidence enough.” Diego responded with a smirk before adding, “You know leaving your door open like that is pretty dangerous.”

“Don’t you go all detective-y right now, Hargreeves.” Monica said as she giggled. “I’d be more than happy to shut it closed… if you get in with me.” 

“I don’t think your roommate likes me very much. Could’ve sworn she was glaring at me through the window when I was waiting for you outside.” Diego said as he loosened his hold on Monica, whose hands dropped to his shoulders.

“She doesn’t.” Monica admitted matter-of-factly. “But she and Ben are probably sleeping by now. They’re old souls. They like to sleep early.” she added. “We just have to be quiet, can you manage that…  _papi_?” as she whispered this she fought back a laugh, placing a finger in front of her lips.

“Please don’t ruin this.” Diego pleaded, taking her finger away and kissing her again. This time he placed his hands on Monica’s ass which made Monica giggle but after a short while she yelped as Diego swiftly moved his hands to her thighs so he could lift her up. In response Monica had to wrap her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist in order to prevent her from falling, though Diego made sure he had a firm grip on her ass.

“Could’ve warned me about that.” she said.

“Shh… we’re heading inside.” Diego whispered as he stepped into the apartment with Monica in his arms. He had to let her back down so she could lock the door properly but shortly after that she took his hand and led her to her room. As soon as the door was closed they were onto each other again a little more aggressively this time.

Diego pressed Monica against her bedroom door with a kiss that was filled with a lot more carnal hunger as their tongues started swirling against each other. They kicked off their own shoes as Monica started unbuttoning Diego’s shirt and soon she was able to peel it off, revealing a black wifebeater he was wearing as an undershirt. Through it she felt the way his skin bumped and grooved in the shape of his muscles.

Diego then started kissing her neck, occasionally sucking and gently nipping at her skin while one of his hands had untucked her shirt from her shorts and started roaming the bare skin underneath. Monica placed her arms around him again as she moaned when his hand started to gently massage one of her breasts. His other hand started working at the buttons of her own shirt but just before he reached the third button Monica’s eyes went wide at a sudden realization.

“Diego, wait.” she said, gently pushing him away. This confused him but he obeyed as he stopped his touching and nipping to look at her with a big question mark all over his face. 

“You don’t like the biting?” he asked.

“The biting is  _great_ but there’s one really  _important_ question I have to ask you.” she said. “Do you have a condom?”

It was then did the realization hit Diego like a brick on a window. Of course, he didn’t think about bringing one since he never thought it would end up like this. 

“Shit.” was all he said in response.

“Don’t worry. I have a solution. Just sit tight for a bit I’ll be real quick.” with that Monica slipped out of her bedroom door, leaving Diego alone and frustrated in the dark of her room. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for her to return, holding up the closed plastic wrap in her hand. “You can thank me later.” she said as she walked past Diego to place the condom on her nightstand. 

“Now, c’mon, Hargreeves. We have all night.” she said with a seductive smile as she started unbuttoning her own shirt. 

“Whoawhoawhoa, slow down, Lee.” Diego said in response as he sauntered towards her, stopping Monica before she could reach the last button on her shirt. “Taking your clothes off for you is one of the fun parts.” he said, using a finger to lift up her head by her chin so they were looking straight at each other. “Allow me…” as he said this he undid the last button on Monica’s shirt, and taking the sleeves off her shoulders and arms he watched as the shirt fell to the floor.

Using the finger that was on her chin he softly traced her jawline down to her neck, eventually reaching her shoulders. He hooked his finger on her bra strap and pulled it away as it fell loosely to the side of her shoulders.

“Either you’re teasing me or you don’t know how to take a bra off.” Monica said, trying to sound sarcastic but his soft tracing and pulling managed to get her panting and longing for him to touch her more.

All of the sudden Diego’s arms found its way around her body as he pulled her close in an abrupt motion, their bodies feeling each other’s heat and their faces inches apart. “You’re right, it ain’t good to tease.” he whispered, kissing her and lifting her up again so he could climb onto the bed and lay her down. 

He broke away from the kiss and straightened himself up to take off the wifebeater he was still wearing, and Monica basked in his perfectly toned figure.  _I wouldn’t mind seeing those abs everyday._ She thought to herself, referring to how Ben would walk around their apartment shirtless to her disapproval. Discarding his wifebeater Diego got on top of Monica, going for her neck again as he resumed his kissing, sucking, and nipping to her delight as she placed her arms around him. 

She felt one of his hands try to insert itself between the mattress and her back and she arched her back a little to allow it to find its way to the hook of her bra, which he undid seamlessly. Momentarily taking her arms of Diego, he took her bra off in one swift motion and the entire top half of her body was exposed and just inviting him to start playing how he wanted. Diego wasted no time for one of his hands to start massaging one of her soft breasts, he pinched at her nipple which elicited a moan from Monica.

Soon the kisses on her neck started trailing its way down, reaching her collarbone, to the top of her other breast, until his mouth and tongue made contact with her nipple, licking and sucking at it. The warmth and dampness of his mouth on one nipple and his hand stimulating the other drove Monica crazy as she moaned out his name.

Then the hand that was massaging one of her breasts had stopped, and as Diego was working his mouth on the other, that hand made its way down to Monica’s shorts. He undid the button and unzipped the shorts, he had to take his mouth off Monica’s breast and as the cold air mixed with her now damp nipple she looked at Diego pleadingly. He merely responded by sticking his middle finger into his mouth so when he pulled it out it was slick with saliva. 

As he inched his face closer to Monica’s so did his hand slide lower down her body until it found its way into her panties, the loosened shorts making it easy to slip its way there. He rubbed his wet finger at her, feeling her as her thighs quivered and her toes curled up in anticipation.

“Diego,  _please_.” Monica begged breathlessly.

“Please what?” Diego whispered softly in her ear.

“Stop being such a fucking tease.” she said.

“Oh no, you have to ask nicely.” as he responded he had stopped rubbing and his hand was slowly pulling out from her panties. Monica let out a soft sigh of frustration and could only think about grabbing the back of Diego’s head as she forced his lips on hers. Diego seemed to have liked her assertiveness as his finger slid back in her panties and into her. 

Monica moaned into their kiss as his finger thrust in and out, occasionally circling it inside of her which she most definitely enjoyed based on the way her moans sounded. When Diego withdrew from the kiss and withdrew his finger Monica whimpered at the lack of contact, though he made up for it by kissing her neck and trailing his kisses this time down her body. 

From her neck he went down to her chest, then her stomach, until he was right below her bellybutton did he stop to slip off Monica’s shorts, her panties removed along with them. Monica’s already flushed cheeks grew redder as she was now completely exposed in front of the man she wanted to strangle the first day they met.

“If you liked that you’ll love what I’m going to do next.” Diego said softly against one of her thighs as he kissed it. Lifting her legs on his shoulders Diego started kissing down her thigh until soon, his mouth was on ‘her’. 

“ _Shit, Diego._ ” Monica moaned, her fingers digging through the sides of the pillow under her head as she arched her back in pleasure. Diego did a number on her, kissing and delving his tongue into her. He didn’t know if she was the type of girl who liked her nub being played with so he tested the waters by gently licking over it and watching her reaction. Her legs which had gone limp on his shoulders stiffed as if jolted from the sensation before her heels started digging onto his back, pushing him and urging him to continue what he was doing. 

When Diego flicked his tongue on that same spot Monica groaned in response before saying, “ _If you want to do something just fucking do it._ ” she rasped.

Diego laughed internally at her begging but responded favorably as he started sucking gently at her nub. Her breath hitched as her legs quivered and went limp again on his shoulders. While he sucked and licked at that sensitive spot he started fingering her again and Monica started getting lightheaded. 

One of her hands had let go of the pillow she was clutching and made its way to the top of Diego’s head as she ran her hand through his hair. With a gentle tug at a handful of his hair she lifted his head off of her and their eyes met, Diego looking at her questionably.

“C’mon, Hargreeves. I can’t be the only one having fun.” she purred as her legs slipped down from his shoulders. They were weak so she used her elbows to prop herself up, prompting Diego to pull his finger out of her as he too straightened up from laying down on his front when he was eating her out.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Just keep quiet and lay down.” she whispered in response as she got on her knees and took Diego’s hand, moving aside and pulling him towards her pillows so he was the one lying down this time. She straddled him and leaned in to kiss him again, this time hungrily sucking at his bottom lip. Monica stopped as she started reversing the roles, this time with her kissing and sucking at Diego’s neck and the latter groaning in response.

Monica took joy in kissing down his toned, muscular torso, and the way she could almost taste Diego’s body heat as she made her way lower. She got in between Diego’s legs and started unbuckling his belt, undoing the button of his pants and unzipping them. He seemed to be wearing boxers but at that point she didn’t really care, she was only after the growing bulge that was in them. 

However, this time it was her turn to tease Diego, so instead of slipping them off her hand started doing a painstakingly slow massage on his groin through the cloth of his unzipped pants and boxers. Diego’s breath hitched as he arched his hips into her touch.

“I know what you’re trying to do.” Diego breathed.

“Do you, now? Well lucky for you, I’m not that big of a tease.” Monica responded with a smirk. Taking her hand off she hooked her thumbs into Diego’s pants and boxers and started pulling them down, Diego lifting his legs up to help her in getting them off.

Monica fumbled a bit but had managed to throw them off the side of the bed, turning her attention back to Diego and his now-free erection. She had to take a moment to take it in.

“Like what you’re seeing?” Diego cooed smugly, biting at his lower lip. 

Monica blushed realizing she had probably been staring at it for a second but brushed it off by leaning closer to his shaft until her lips were only inches away. She savored the smell of his masculinity and Diego’s jaw tightened in anticipation as he felt her soft breath on him. 

“Why don’t I show you just how much I like it then?” she murmured, wetting her lips before she started with kissing and brushing her lips on Diego’s shaft. In response Diego let out a sigh as he closed his eyes and felt her hot and wet lips touching his member teasingly.

Monica then got her tongue out and started licking his rod, the warmth of her saliva mixing with the cool air in the room. While she sloppily licked at him she also sucked at the sides, until she decided to start playing with the head. Her tongue swirled around the head while she used her hand to do upward and downward strokes to his cock, which was wet with her saliva. 

Taking the head into her mouth she started sucking at it while still caressing the shaft, her tongue licking at his slit. 

“ _Jesus Christ, Monica_.” Diego moaned, opening his eyes to look at her. She looked up at him, not taking her mouth and hand off his cock, and held his gaze for a moment. Then, hallowing her cheeks, her mouth started taking in more of Diego, her hand still on the length her mouth could no longer reach.

This time it was Diego’s turn to quiver and moan as he felt the warmth and wetness of her mouth engulf him. He moved his hands to her hair, pulling it back so he could have a good look at her face while she bobbed up and down on his cock. While she sucked on the upper half her hand continued its own up and down rhythmic strokes on the lower parts of his shaft, matching the pace of her bobbing as the saliva that escaped her lips trickled down to lubricate it. 

“ _Fuck_.” Diego grunted as he let Monica continue for a little while longer before he tugged at her hair, signaling for her to stop lest he finish before they got to the main course. Monica got the signal and stopped, taking her mouth and hand off his cock and looking at him expectantly, her lips still slick with her saliva.

“Not yet.” he whispered as he took Monica by the arms and pulled her on top of him. He placed his arms around her as he flipped their positions so now he was on top of her, his damp erection throbbing between her thighs. Not taking his eyes off of hers he felt for and took the condom on her nightstand, only then did he sit up straight to tear off the plastic package and pull out the elastic. 

Slipping the condom onto his cock he got back on top of Monica as he positioned the tip right at her entrance. Monica wrapped her hands around his broad back and he used his other hand to keep himself propped up on top of her.

“You ready?” he cooed.

“Are  _you_ ready?” Monica responded, mocking his response back in the arcade before they started the  _Just Dance_ game that most likely started all of this. Diego chuckled as he pushed himself inside of her, eliciting moans from both sides as he felt her warmth surround him and Monica felt him fill her up.

“ _Oh God, Diego_ …” she moaned desperately into his ear as her grip on his back got tighter, her eyes hazy as she looked at him.

“I’m going to start moving.” he breathed and Monica could only nod in response. Slowly Diego started moving, gentle at first as he started setting a rhythm that would work for Monica. When she wrapped her legs around his waist and used the heels of her feet again to push at his lower back he took the hint and his thrusts started getting deeper, harder, and rougher. 

Monica felt as if she was seeing stars at the back of her closed eyelids every time she felt him thrust inwards. Her legs started losing their strength as she struggled to keep them on Diego’s waist so she could arch her hips to match his rhythm. 

“ _Fuck. Diego. Yes._ ” she wasn’t make sense of her words as she moaned out loud. 

Diego had buried his face into her neck as he was thrusting, lifting his head to whisper into her ear, “ _I thought we were supposed to keep quiet?_ ”

“ _We can keep them up all night for all I fucking care_.” Monica responded breathily.

Diego smiled as he proceeded to suck at Monica’s neck while keeping up his pace, ignoring the slight sting at feeling her nails digging into his back. He stopped sucking and watched as a purplish red bruise started to form. 

Their scents, sweat, moans, and body heat mixed into the air as Diego kept thrusting until he could feel it - the sensation that he was about to release.

“ _D... Diego_ …” Monica stuttered.

“ _I’m almost there_.” he moaned in response.

“ _Me too_ …” 

A few more thrusts and Monica started noticing a change in his pace as it got hastier, losing his original rhythm while she started feeling her vision fading to black. Diego was moaning a slur of curse words under his breath as he reached closer and closer into his climax.

“ _Diego_ …!” Monica mewled, at her limit. Then with a final thrust Diego cried out her name in response as it felt like time had stopped and he released into the condom. 

The last of Monica’s leg strength drained, they fell to the side as Diego just momentarily stayed on top and inside of her to catch his breath. He looked at her, both of them panting and flushed red, when a drop of sweat from his forehead dripped into her eye.

“Ow, hey!” she exclaimed, slapping Diego playfully on his back as he laughed.

“Sorry about that.” he said, wiping the sweat off his forehead before his hand went down to hold onto the bottom of the condom as he pulled out. Sitting up he slipped the filled up condom off his softening cock and he held it up to Monica, who pointed at a trash can at the corner of her room in response and a box of tissues on her nightstand.

Reaching over and grabbing a couple he wrapped the used condom in them, careful not to spill any of its contents. He took the torn up wrapper and slipped off the bed to throw it into the trash can while Monica slipped under her blanket and enjoyed the view of his fine ass as he walked over there. 

Diego joined her under the blanket after taking care of the condom, Monica inching closer so she could lay her head on his chest as he placed his arm around her and buried his nose into her hair. They stayed like that in silence for a while, with Monica listening to his steady heartbeat.

“Wait, did you just give me a hickey?” she asked suddenly.

“I might have.” Diego responded casually, shortly having one of her pillows hit him in the face. “I got in the mood.” he said in his defence though he was fighting back a laugh.

“Thank you for officially starting Turtleneck Week.” Monica said, setting down the pillow she used to hit Diego and rolling her eyes.

“Please. You’ll look hot either way.” was Diego’s response as he cupped Monica’s face with one of his hands, caressing her cheek. She felt herself immediately melting into his touch as he pulled her closer, kissing her softly this time. Sweet and innocent… not like the sloppy, carnal mess earlier.

Monica lay her head back down on Diego’s chest, instantly calm. “Guess this means no attempts on Mexican for three months, huh?” she said.

Diego didn’t say anything at first as he played with her hair. “Still have that contract?” he asked.

“It’s in my phone. I’ll go get it.” Monica pried herself off of Diego as she walked over near her door where she dropped her purse, feeling his eyes look her up and down the way she did not too long ago. Once she fished her phone out of her purse she made her way back under the blankets with Diego. “And… here it is.” she said, tapping it open and presenting it to Diego.

Diego took her phone from her and stared at the screen for a moment before tapping on the trash can icon, deleting it. This surprised Monica for a short moment until a smile broke out on her face. Diego set her phone aside on the nightstand and noticed she was beaming.

“Just don’t overdo it, okay?” he said, gently pushing her back on his chest so he could play with her hair again. 

“You’re the best…  _papi_.” Monica responded, succumbing to a fit of giggles and Diego just let out a sigh. 

“Goodnight, Monica.” he said, kissing her on the top of her head, making her stop giggling though a smile was still plastered on her face.

“Goodnight… Diego…”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Awkward morning afters.

Jessica knocked at the door to Monica’s room for the second time when her first batch of knocks elicited no response. Ben was in the kitchen cleaning up after he made a stack of pancakes for breakfast.

Not looking up from what he was doing he said, “Let her sleep, love. She probably had a rough night last night.”

“But I can’t wait to hear about it! Plus, the pancakes are getting cold.” Jessica whined, knocking at Monica’s door again. “Maica! Rise and shine, darling. Ben made pancakes!” when there was still no response she knocked again, continuing, “C’mon, gurl! I can’t wait to hear about your shitty date with that son of a–”

Jessica was unable to finish her sentence as the door creaked open and she was greeted with the sight of Diego in his shirtless, towel-wrapped-around-his-waist glory. Since it was impossible they didn’t notice him going out to take a shower he probably just picked it off Monica’s rack so he wouldn’t be standing completely naked in front of Monica’s roommates.

“M-manly… man…” Jessica stuttered, obviously taken by surprise at seeing another pair of abs that weren’t Ben’s as she couldn’t help but look him up and down. Ben noticed the change in her tone immediately and stopped abruptly, his gaze now leering at the tan-skinned hottie standing right before his girlfriend.

“Jessica, right?” Diego said calmly.

“R-right, I’m Ben, that’s Jessica. I mean… I’m Jessica, that’s Ben.” Jessica responded with a nervous chuckle, screwing up with her words. She had to tear her gaze away from Diego as she tried to take a peek inside Monica’s room to look for her best friend. She found Monica’s sleeping body still wrapped comfortably under the blankets.

“I’ll go wake her up.” Diego said.

“Sure, that’d be awesome.” at that Diego smiled coyly before he closed the door and Jessica exhaled, as if she had been holding her breath the entire time she was conversing with him. She turned and caught Ben’s gaze, the expression in his eyes showing how obviously displeased he was at the display, his hands also on his hips.

“Really?” he said.

“How do you expect me to have been prepared for  _that_?!”

**Inside Monica’s Room**

Diego hung Monica’s towel back on its rack before sitting down on the bed next to Monica. Feeling the other side of the bed sink due to his weight, Monica started stirring from her sleep. She groaned sleepily as she stretched her arms, and slowly opened her eyes, turning to Diego.

“Good morning.” Diego greeted.

“Last night was for real after all.” Monica said with a smile. “Good morning. No kisses please. Morning breath.”

Diego chuckled before saying, “I met your roommates. I woke up when she wouldn’t stop knocking at the door.” he said.

Looking at Diego, Monica raised an eyebrow before saying, “Naked?”

“I borrowed your towel.”

“So half-naked?”

“Eh, I’m pretty confident with my body.” Diego said with a shrug.

“Huh, well I hope she enjoyed the view.” Monica said, laughing at the thought. Stretching for one last time she sat up and slid off her bed. “C’mon let’s get dressed for breakfast.” she said picking up and throwing Diego his wifebeater, pants, and boxers. As Diego started to get dressed Monica started picking up her own clothes, grabbing a pair of more comfortable shorts from her closet and Diego’s button-down shirt. 

“I’m borrowing this, by the way.” she declared.

**A Few Minutes Later**

When Diego and Monica stepped out of her room both Ben and Jessica were sitting on the couch, as if waiting for them to come out. They looked like they were having a serious conversation before noticing them, at which Jessica got off the couch and made her way to them.

“Good morning! Did you sleep well?” she said with fake enthusiasm as Ben glared briefly at Diego’s direction before looking away and pretended to be busy with his phone, though they didn’t notice. 

“Uhh… yeah…?” Monica said slowly, creeped out at Jessica being out-of-character.

“Good! Good, good, good.” she said repeatedly with an awkward giggle. “Um… Maica there’s something I want to show you in mine and Ben’s room it’s  _suuuper_ important.” 

“Fuck, you noticed the missing condom already?” Monica blurted.

“What?” Jessica and Ben said in unison.

“What?” Monica responded hastily, as if it would erase what she just said as Diego pinched the bridge of his nose in embarrassment.

“Uhh… no, silly! Umm… Ben and I got new sheets and I wanted to know what you think! Yeah, that’s it.” Jessica said.

“Uhh… why?” Monica asked.

“Just fucking come with me, bitch–umm…” clearing her throat Jessica continued, this time tugging at Monica’s arm and giving it a squeeze, “C’mon, we value your opinion  _so_ much! Diego you can help yourself to some pancakes while waiting for Maica.” as she offered this she heard Ben scoff in disgust, prompting her to turn to him briefly to give him a warning look before turning back to Monica and Diego with her fake smile. 

“Aww but I want pancakes too…” Monica whined.

“I’ll leave some for you.” Diego said. “Thanks for the offer. Hope you don’t take too long, though.” 

“Oh, we’ll be out in a jiffy! Let’s go, Maica.” Jessica said as she literally pulled Monica towards hers and Ben’s room while Diego made his way to the dining area, Ben watching his every move through his peripheral vision. 

**Inside Jessica and Ben’s Room**

As Jessica shut the door she turned furiously at her best friend, whom she found  _actually_ analyzing the sheets on their bed.

“Not a bad color you picked out this time.” Monica commented. 

“Maica just  _what the fuck_  are you doing?!” Jessica hissed as she stomped closer to Monica.

“Umm… you asked for my opinion about your sheets and I’m giving them?”

“You know what I’m fucking talking about, bitch!” Jessica snapped, at this Monica said nothing and started fidgeting with her fingers like a child being scolded. “What the hell happened to  _‘It’s not a big deal, Jessie. It’s not a date date it’s just a bet.’_  or  _‘Stop overreacting’_.” she continued to say with a mocking tone, angrily making quotation mark gestures when she referred to what Monica told her before she left that night with Diego.

“Jessie, I’m sorry! I know what I said but he took me to a pizza parlor and an arcade and things got a bit heated after playing  _Just Dance_ …” Monica responded with a small voice.

“So are you just going to fall for any guy who’d feed you pizza and get all touchy with you during a video game?”

“That doesn’t sound too bad, you know… when you put it that way…”

“Maica you are  _unbelievable_! Are you forgetting why you shouldn’t be involved with him in the first place?!” 

“I didn’t forget…”

“Then explain why I opened  _your_ bedroom door to a half-naked Diego Hargreeves standing in front of me?!” 

There was a pause before Monica said, “Did you enjoy the view?” at which Jessica slapped her on the arm. “Ow! Jessie, please–”

“Wait. Is that a hickey?!” Jessica exclaimed, pushing away some of Monica’s hair to get a clear view of the purplish red bruise Diego gave her last night.

“Uhh… if I said ‘yes’ will you let me borrow some of your turtle necks?”

“No.”

“Then… it’s not a hickey? I… hit my neck?” Monica lied unsuredly, prompting Jessica to roll her eyes.

“Jesus Christ… you’re even wearing his goddamn shirt.” Jessica commented and Monica responded by pulling the shirt’s collar to her nose and giving it a big whiff. 

“Goddamn he smells so good… want to smell him? C’mon, smell him.” she said while trying to push one of the shirt sleeves at Jessica’s nose.

“Stop it!” Jessica demanded, slapping away her hand, making Monica pout and look down, fidgeting again with her fingers. Heaving a heavy sigh Jessica softened her tone, continuing, “Maica, honey, you know I just don’t want to see you get hurt.” 

“Jessie, please just give him a chance. This time it’s  _different_. He’s  _different_. I’m  _different_ from who I was before and you know that.” Monica pleaded. “I… really like Diego.” she confessed.

Jessica took a moment to think, crossing her arms across her chest as she looked at her best friend’s genuinely pleading expression. “Okay, but if he hurts you just  _one time_  I’m not going to fucking care that he has ‘superpowers’ I’m going to knife him myself.”

Monica smiled softly as she said, “Thank you.” 

“C’mere you piece of shit.” Jessica said as she opened her arms wide and Monica stepped closer for the two to hug. “Now let’s get Ben in here we’re going to have to lay some ground rules if another male is going to be staying here from time to time.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get "physical" between Diego and Ben.

Diego seated himself on the dining table which was right by the window where Jessica stood last night glaring at him. There were two sets of unused plates and utensils already on the table with the pancakes right at the middle along with the syrup, but no butter. They probably placed it back in the fridge for the meantime so it wouldn’t melt.

“Hey umm… Ben, right?” Diego said, calling out to the blonde sitting on the couch who turned to him slowly.

“Yeah?” he responded with a slight edge.

“Is it cool if I grab some butter from your fridge?” Diego asked.

“No worries.” Ben said plainly. Diego was starting to notice his less-than-friendly tone and expression but he decided not to mind since he was a stranger in their place, after all. 

Getting up, he made his way to the fridge and although he could see Ben scrolling through his phone he knew this guy was still keeping an eye on him. When Diego pulled the fridge open and when his focus was on finding the butter, Ben stole a glance at the muscles of his arm flexing slightly at opening the fridge, making him look at his own muscled arms.

When Diego took the butter out of the fridge and closed it Ben hastily turned his attention back to his phone. He didn’t know Diego actually knew he was looking at him so the flexing was on purpose as he felt like screwing with him.

Diego returned to the small round table by the window and set down the butter before taking his seat again. He took two pancakes from the stack of four and placed the other two on the empty plate next to his for Monica.

He started spreading butter on his share of pancakes in silence, occasionally stealing glances at the blonde man sitting nearby on the couch who was still busying himself with his phone, also in silence. After what seemed like a few minutes Ben suddenly got up and made his way towards the window Diego was sitting by.

Diego started getting more focused on his pancakes, not wanting to make it obvious he had also been secretly watching Ben. As he started to pour some syrup on them Ben reached the window and pulled the curtains apart to one side, also using this as an excuse to flex his own arms right in front of Diego. Exaggerating, of course, because seriously he’s just pulling the curtains to the side.

“Beautiful sunny day out.” Ben commented seemingly randomly as looked at Diego.

“Seems like it.” Diego responded plainly, now cutting his pancakes into pieces and yet again doing them in more or less the same exaggerated fashion as Ben’s curtain stunt to put emphasis on his arms. He was holding his fork on his right so after cutting a bite-sized piece, he added by placing his right elbow on the table, his biceps flexing at the action. 

He looked right at Ben as he took a bite out of the piece of pancake he cut out, chewing slowly as if waiting for his reaction. Ben tensed up for a split second before he scoffed and a fake smile crawled onto his face. 

Ben turned back to the window and Diego continued consuming his pancakes, thinking that was the end of it before Ben started to speak again.

“Phew, it’s starting to get a little warm in here with the weather like that.” Ben said, prompting Diego to look at him again. “Sorry the apartment’s so stuffy, mate.” he added and before Diego could react Ben had taken his shirt off in one swift motion. His perfectly crafted abs seeming to sparkle at the daylight shining through the curtains Ben had opened earlier. 

Diego was honestly at a loss for words for a moment, but before he could retaliate someone else had gotten their attention.

“ _Ben_!” it was Jessica, hissing at her boyfriend at the open door to their room, Monica staring open-mouthed at the scene. Ben jumped a bit and dropped his shirt in surprise, which he promptly picked up as he turned to the two women.

Both Diego and Ben had a hunch they’d been watching for a while and only chose this time to call their attention.

“Yes, love?” Ben responded meekly, fidgeting with the shirt on his hands.

“Family meeting.” was all she said as she gestured for Ben to come inside their room. 

“And put your damn shirt on we have a guest.” Monica added.

Ben sneered subtly at Diego before proceeding to put his shirt back on. “He should’ve kept  _his_ shirt on…” he muttered before walking towards the room where Jessica and Monica are waiting.

Monica’s and Diego’s eyes met for a moment and she mouthed ‘ _just a few more minutes_ ’ before Ben got inside and Jessica closed the door.

Diego took a moment to process what seemed to have been a play on establishing alpha male dominance with Ben before shrugging and continuing to consume his pancakes. 

**Inside Jessica & Ben’s Room**

As Ben joined Jessica and Monica in the room he took a short look at his girlfriend before looking down on his feet like a puppy being scolded.

“I don’t even want to know what the two of you were trying to accomplish out there.” Jessica started. “But I think that is exactly why we need to have a few rules around here if we expect Diego to be a regular visitor.”

“He started it…” Ben muttered, but when his eyes met an incredulous look from Jessica he looked down again and decided to keep his mouth shut.

“Why can’t we have Diego here if we’re discussing rules about him?” Monica asked.

“No.” Jessica and Ben said in unison.

“First of all, I called for a family meeting, which is you, me, and Ben. Diego is not family. Second, that’s Rule #1, neither of you are allowed in our room. You, Maica, my dear, have never been interested in coming into our room before, but that might change after what happened last night. I don’t want to think of you sneaking around our room to grab a condom again while we’re asleep.” Jessica said sternly and now it was Monica’s turn to look down and fidget with her fingers. “Which leads me to Rule #2, buy your own damn condoms.” she added.

“Last night was an emergency…” Monica said underneath her breath but when Jessica leered at her she added with a soft, “Okay.”

“Rule #3, in no point in your ‘relationship’ are you guys ever allowed to do it on the couch.” Jessica continued.

_You guys have probably marked it anyway_. Monica commented in her thoughts.

“Rule #4, if you stay over at his place you have to leave Ben and I a message.”

“Jesus, Jessie, I’m not a fucking high schooler.” Monica blurted out before she could stop herself.

“No, you’re a grown woman, but you’re also my best friend and mine and Ben’s default adult child since the three of us have been living in the same apartment for a significant amount of time.” Jessica responded matter-of-factly.

_I shouldn’t even be paying rent then._  Monica thought, internally rolling her eyes.

“Rule #5, he keeps his clothes on as long as he isn’t in your room or your bedroom door is open enough for people to see inside.” Ben said firmly. 

“Oh c’mon, Ben. You parade around the apartment with just a towel on and I’ve  _always_ complained and neither of you listen.” Monica said.

“This is technically my apartment too I have the freedom to do that.”

“Nuh-uh, this is  _mine and Jessica’s_  apartment. You moved in when the two of you started dating a couple of years ago. We used to strut around in our bras on hot days until you came along with your pretty blonde hair and beautiful green eyes and sexy abs and smooth British accent…” Monica rambled.

“I can’t tell if you’re talking back at me or complimenting me.” Ben said, confused.

“Okay, fine.” Jessica said with finality. “To be fair, Ben, honey, you’re going to have to stop as well. Starting today the common areas of the apartment are strictly No Shirt, No Entrance.”

“Are you joking?” Ben protested, but again one sneer from Jessica was enough for him to submit. “All right, love…” he said.

“Okay, so to repeat. #1, mine and Ben’s room is off-limits. #2, so are our condom packs, buy your own. #3, the couch is off-limits to any form of sex stuff. #4, Maica should send Ben and I a message if she ever stays over at Diego’s. And #5, the boys keep their clothes on as long as they’re in the apartment’s common areas.” Jessica summarized. “Are all agreed?”

There was a moment’s hesitation before Monica and Ben muttered, “Agreed.” **  
**

“Okay! Cool. Family meeting adjourned. Maica I’ll leave it to you to relay your message to Diego.” Jessica proclaimed.

“Oh and just for the record.” Ben said just as they were starting to head out of the room. “I don’t like him.” 

“I could tell.” Monica muttered. When Jessica opened the door Diego seemed to have already finished eating and was lounging on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table, scrolling through his phone. 

“Yeah, no. I  _really_ don’t like him.” Ben added.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego meets another weirdo.

**2 Months After  
**

Diego and Monica had planned on keeping their relationship low key in the precinct considering how the latter was related to the Commanding Officer and they were both working in the same office. However Chuck, the amazing detective he is, found out only a few days after upon noticing the changes in the way they acted around each other.

Or rather, he confirmed his suspicions when he found them making out in the records room.

Well, Chuck was bound to know anyway seeing as he was the closest to Diego in the precinct. They could trust him with their thing, it was Chuck who wasn’t sure they could keep their hands off each other during office hours and run the risk of someone else catching them.

They weren’t sure if Captain Lee had a hunch or not as he was hard to read, but they did notice Monica started getting less and less involved in assisting Diego as opposed to Chuck or the other detectives in the precinct. It came to a point where the Captain told Diego if he needed anything from him he could just go straight to his office and not have to course through his requests with Monica.

Guess that was his subtle way of being the uncle he is.

This had Monica interacting a lot more with the other detectives and less with Diego, mostly the only times he’d be approaching her desk was when he was bringing her lunch. Most of the other detectives were guys with just a couple of females, but it was cool since no one really dared to try hitting on the Captain’s niece.

Well, maybe except for this one time.

“Hey Monica, I was wondering if you were free sometime this week as there’s this great movie–” rambled on a random detective as he collected a file he asked the Captain to sign.

“No.” Monica responded flatly, not making eye contact as she handed the file over and turned back to her computer.

“Okay.” responded the detective in defeated finality as he walked away.

Diego had been watching the whole scene unfold from his desk and he had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing.

With Jessica and Ben, they had managed to be civil around Diego though Ben was a little more obvious about his dislike for him. When they were in the same space together it was like Ben was perpetually flexing and at first Diego found it amusing then grew tired of it and decided to ignore it.

Although, Ben thought Diego ignoring it was him losing the non-existent alpha male competition. Ben celebrated his “victory” with hot, passionate love-making, to Jessica’s blissfully unaware delight on what brought it on.

Currently, Diego was driving Monica home after he took her to the boxing gym he frequented for her first session. She had been groaning and whining for the entire ride.

“Why did I let you talk me into this?” she whined, barely being able to lift her sore arms.

“Because you said boxing was easy.” Diego’s answer had been the same every time she asked that and his tone grew more and more impatient every time. Monica made a weeping noise as she rubbed her swollen, reddened knuckles, she winced as she accidentally swiped over a piece of raw skin that ripped off. 

“I don’t think my hand wraps were put on correctly.” she complained.

“I put on your hand wraps. You got that because you tried stopping the bag from swinging towards you with a punch. I told you not to do that.” Diego said sharply. 

“No it was definitely the hand wraps.” Monica insisted.

“You never listen to me, don’t you?” Diego’s tone started getting more annoyed as he glanced at Monica. 

“Keep your eyes on the road, Rocky.” Monica responded in an equally annoyed tone as she waved a dismissive hand at Diego and turned away to look outside the passenger’s side window. When she did that they had passed by a streetlamp which illuminated her hands for a brief moment. 

It was a quick moment but Diego was still able to see that her hands really weren’t in the best shape. Bruised, swollen, and on some knuckles the skin had broken exposing sensitive patches of raw skin. 

Maybe she had been working hard on the bags trying to impress him. He turned back to the road and was quiet for a moment.

“How bad does it hurt?” Diego asked, his tone softer. 

Monica didn’t respond immediately but after a few seconds, said, “I can still move my hands.”

“Do they feel numb?”

“No.” 

“Do you have a first aid kit and ice at your apartment?”

“Of course we do.”

“We’ll put some ice on your bruises. Bandages on those cuts too.” he couldn’t see with his gaze on the road and Monica looking out the window, but the latter was smiling like a giddy schoolgirl being asked out to prom. “Sorry for dragging you into that.” Diego added.

“It’s okay. Muscle pain and beat up hands aside, I still had fun.” Monica responded, looking at Diego this time.

“Oh, you wanna go back sometime and do another round?” he asked.

“Pfft, not a chance.” Monica laughed as she relaxed a bit now their argument had been diffused.

“Pity.” Diego started as they reached her apartment and parked right in front. “You looked hot.” he commented as he looked at Monica, their gazes meeting. 

There was a silent moment of them taking their seatbelts off before they lunged themselves at each other, lips locking and hands snaking around each other. Boxing hadn’t really stirred Monica’s adrenaline enough for her to enjoy it, but kissing Diego alone got it through the roof all the time, making her ignore the aches and sores of her body.

They stopped to take a breath, their foreheads touching. 

“Come up.” Monica demanded.

“For the ice and bandages?” Diego asked.

“That can wait.”

**Monica & Jessica’s Apartment**

The two spilled into the darkness of the apartment with Monica fumbling to get the door locked as Diego started feeling up her tank top and nipping at her neck from behind. 

“C’mon, Diego you gotta give me a moment to concentrate.” Monica whispered.

“You did just fine before why is now any different?” Diego whispered back, biting gently at the lobe of her ear which sent shivers down her spine.

“You forgot my hands aren’t exactly in their perfect condition.” 

“Hmm. Guess I’ll stop then.” and in an instant Diego had taken his hands off and distanced himself from Monica, walking away backwards. Monica scoffed in response as she managed to lock their door before she stormed up to Diego and grabbed him by the shirt.

“Two months and you’re still a fucking tease.” she hissed as she maneuvered Diego around the coffee table and pushed him down so he sat on the couch. Monica straddled him and peeled off her tank top, leaving her in her sports bra and leggings.

“You could’ve worn just this as your top to the gym.” Diego commented as he ran a finger along the hem of her sports bra, a teasing habit he picked up (most of the time it was the strap he liked playing with) and Monica hated as it gave her the strong temptation to rip all his clothes off.

“And you want me exposing all this skin to all those other guys?” she said, firmly taking Diego’s hand off the hem as she leaned in closer, keeping his hand to the side.

“The guys there know who I am and know not to fuck with me.” Diego said as he used his free hand to caress Monica’s cheek. “Or my girl.” as he said this he could feel Monica’s cheeks heat up and her grip on his other hand loosen, clearly being caught off guard. He took this opportunity to give her a soft kiss before saying, “Gotcha.”

“You’re the worst and sometimes I hate you.” she responded.

“Mm hmm.” Diego murmured dismissively knowing full well she never meant it when she said that, she just didn’t like it when he could tell he did something that made her feel like jelly. He was about to kiss her again when an unfamiliar voice sounded off in the darkness.

“Wow, you two must be really into each other.” judging from where it came from it seemed like this other figure was sitting on the other side of the couch, but they couldn’t make out who from the silhouette since the apartment was too dark.

“Who the fuck–” Monica started but was quickly shut down when the figure had shown a flashlight below their face, illuminating a female they definitely haven’t seen before who was Asian with long black hair and since the light lighted up parts of her hand and shoulders she seemed to be wearing something lacy and white.

Monica screamed bloody murder as she fell off Diego and was crawling and weeping on the floor.

“IT’S THAT BITCH WHO COMES OUT OFF THE TV KNIFE KNIFE KNIFE DIEGO KNIFE KNIFE!” Monica yelled hysterically.

“CALM THE FUCK DOWN!” Diego yelled back, more surprised at her reaction than seeing this unknown Asian chick in their apartment.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!” this time it was Jessica’s familiar voice that rang in the dark apartment as the lights were suddenly switched on by a groggy, boxers-only wearing Ben. Once they were on both Diego and Monica were able to get a full view of the other woman, who was indeed wearing a long, lacy, Victorianesque nightgown; and the couch, which had pillows and a blanket to the other side next to where the woman was sitting.

“What the actual fuck.” was all Diego could say.

“Am I going to die?” Monica said, still shaking on the floor, now more scared of Jessica’s livid expression than the weird nightgown wearing Asian on the couch.

“Rule number fucking three, Maica.” Jessica said coldly.

“Hey did you see Ben over there?! What about rule number fucking five?!” Monica retaliated.

“With you screaming like you did when we watched  _It_ did you think he had time to put a shirt on?!” 

“Love, please.” Ben begged, his eyes squinting from adjusting from the darkness to the now-lit room. “Can we just introduce your cousin and get back to sleep?” 

“Cousin?! You’re related to fucking Sadako?!” Monica said in disbelief as she got up from the floor.

Jessica rolled her eyes before starting, “Guys this is  _Alice_ , yes she’s my cousin and she’ll be living with us too since she got herself broke after buying her boyfriend a gaming PC.” 

Diego tried to hide an impressed and slightly jealous expression in his eyes but when he made brief eye contact with Ben they both had a mutual understanding for the first time.

“He needed the specs. He’s a digital artist. His clients are top-paying. It’s an investment for our future.” the Asian woman, now named Alice, defended. 

“Ugh then why didn’t he buy the fucking PC himself–you know what, I’m not having this conversation with you anymore it’s just pointless.” Jessica said frustratedly. “Her mom and my mom are sisters, her dad’s Japanese, thus the Asian-ness.”

“Konnichiwawa.” Alice said in response.

“But it’s evening… and doesn’t that only have one ‘wa’?” Diego pointed out.

“My dad left my mom when he knocked her up so I never learned Japanese.”

“Uhh… okay…”

“You could’ve told me your cousin was moving in.” Monica said.

“Hey she was just as much of a surprise to me as she is to you she just popped out of nowhere and dropped her shit here and started nesting on the couch.” Jessica responded.

“It’s a nice and fluffy nest. Probably filled with many love juices.” Alice commented.

“Alice  _shut up_.”

“And what’s up with the fucking nightgown?” Monica said, and suddenly Alice made a sudden movement with her hands where she imitated Madonna’s vogue pose.

“Sutairu.” she said.

“What?”

“Su-ta-i-ru.”

“I have no idea what the fuck you’re saying.”

“I’m trying to say ‘style’ with a Japanese accent.” 

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

“Anyway! Ben and I are tired and sleepy so… Alice, Diego, Monica; Monica, Diego, Alice. We’re done here.” Jessica said, pointing to the respective individuals as she said their names before she and Ben retired back to their room.

There was an awkward silence before Monica said, “Uhh… I think you should just go home tonight.”

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Don’t forget about those okay?” Diego said as he got up, referring to Monica’s bruised and cut knuckles.

“I won’t.” Monica responded with a small smile.

“See you tomorrow at the precinct.”

“Yeah, see you.” 

Diego gave Monica one last kiss before he exited the apartment and Monica locked the door after him. When she turned she met Alice’s staring eyes, feeling creeped out at the fact that she was watching them the entire time.

Monica decided not to mind her as she made her way to the kitchen where they kept the first aid kit in one of the cupboards, in her peripheral vision she could see Alice fluffing her pillows and getting under her blanket. 

“Wait.” Alice said, suddenly sitting up as Monica had just retrieved the first aid kit from the cupboard and the sudden movement and voice made her jump, dropping the kit and spilling its contents. 

“Can you not do that please?” Monica said through gritted teeth.

“Sorry. I was just wondering… is your boyfriend Mexican?”


End file.
